Source: http://openjurist.org/225/f3d/909
Timestamp: 2014-03-08 10:38:56
Document Index: 398958787

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1001', '§ 1441', '§ 502', '§ 1132', '§ 502', '§ 502']

225 F3d 909 Robert Lyons et al. v. Philip Morris Incorporated et al. | OpenJurist
225 F. 3d 909 - Robert Lyons et al. v. Philip Morris Incorporated et al.	Home225 f3d 909 robert lyons et al. v. philip morris incorporated et al.
225 F3d 909 Robert Lyons et al. v. Philip Morris Incorporated et al. 225 F.3d 909 (8th Cir. 2000)
ROBERT E. LYONS, ET AL., PLAINTIFFS - APPELLANTS,v.PHILIP MORRIS INCORPORATED, ET AL., DEFENDANTS - APPELLEES.
No. 99-2843
Submitted: June 12, 2000Filed: September 1, 2000
Before Loken and Bright, Circuit Judges, and Hand,* District Judge.
The trustees of twenty-five multi-employer health benefit plans (the Trustees) commenced this action in Minnesota state court, asserting various state law claims against defendant tobacco companies. The Trustees seek damages and equitable relief to remedy alleged injury to the plans, including "higher administrative costs . . . in the form of paying claims for care associated with tobacco related illnesses." Defendants removed the case to federal court, and the Trustees moved to remand. Concluding that the Trustees "are essentially making subrogation claims" for the recovery of health benefits paid, the district court1 denied their motion to remand because those claims are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq. (ERISA). The Trustees then filed a second amended complaint, which contained none of the earlier state law claims, nor any claim under ERISA, but asserted claims under the federal antitrust laws and RICO. In separate orders, the district court dismissed those claims on the merits and dismissed defendant B.A.T Industries (BAT) for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Trustees appeal, arguing the district court lacked removal jurisdiction over their initial suit and improperly dismissed their antitrust claims, their RICO claims, and defendant BAT. We affirm.
The Trustees argue that removal was improper because the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over their state court complaint. Therefore, we should remand the case to the district court with instructions to remand it to state court. We reject this contention for two independent reasons.
A. ERISA Preemption.
A civil action is removable if the district court has "original jurisdiction founded on a claim or right arising under the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b). Here, the Trustees' state court complaint pleaded only state law claims. That is a plaintiff's prerogative, and it is normally honored. Under the "well-pleaded complaint" rule, "a case may not be removed to federal court on the basis of a federal defense, including the defense of pre-emption, even if the defense is anticipated in the plaintiff's complaint." Franchise Tax Board v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 14 (1983). However, the well-pleaded complaint rule does not apply if Congress has evidenced an intent that federal law completely displace state law. "Once an area of state law has been completely pre-empted, any claim purportedly based on that pre-empted state law is considered, from its inception, a federal claim, and therefore arises under federal law." Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 393 (1987).
In Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S. 41, 52-56 (1987), the Supreme Court held that the comprehensive civil remedies in § 502(a) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a), completely preempt state law remedies. On the same day, the Court applied this ruling to a challenged removal, concluding that "causes of action within the scope of the civil enforcement provisions of § 502(a) [are] removable to federal court." Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58, 66 (1987). In other words, "[c]auses of action within the scope of, or that relate to, the civil enforcement provisions of 502(a) are removable to federal court despite the fact the claims are couched in terms of state law." Hull v. Fallon, 188 F.3d 939, 942 (8th Cir. 1999). If any of the Trustees' state law claims are within the scope of § 502(a), the case was properly removed.2
Section 502(a) provides that an ERISA fidu