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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1447', '§ 1447', '§ 1441', '§ 1446', '§ 1441', '§ 1447', '§ 1447', '§ 1447', '§ 1447', '§ 1447', '§ 28', '§ 71', '§ 80', '§ 71', '§ 71', '§ 71', '§ 71', '§ 1447', '§ 1447']

THERMTRON PRODUCTS, INC. V. HERMANSDORFER, 423 U. S. 336 - Volume 423 - 1976 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 423 > THERMTRON PRODUCTS, INC. V. HERMANSDORFER, 423 U. S. 336 (1976) > Full Text
2. Section 1447(d), when construed as it must be in conjunction with § 1447(c), does not bar appellate review by mandamus of a remand order made on grounds not specified in § 1447(c),
On April 9, 1973, two citizens and residents of Kentucky filed an action in a Kentucky state court against Thermtron Products, Inc., an Indiana corporation without office or place of business in Kentucky, and one Larry Dean Newhard, an employee of Thermtron and a citizen and resident of Indiana, seeking damages for injuries arising out of an automobile accident between plaintiffs' automobile and a vehicle driven by Newhard.
Service on the defendants, who are petitioners here, was by substituted service on the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth, pursuant to Kentucky law. Later that month, petitioners removed the cause to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1441 [Footnote 1] and 1446. [Footnote 2] The
case was assigned a number, and the defendants filed their answer and later proceeded with discovery. On February 5, 1974, respondent judge issued an order in the case which recited that the action "was removed from the Pike Circuit Court, Pike County, Kentucky, on April 30, 1973, pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1446," that his court had reviewed its entire civil docket and found "that there is no available time in which to try the above-styled action in the foreseeable future," and that an adjudication of the merits of the case would be expedited in the state court. Record 31. The order then called upon the defendants to show cause "why the ends of justice do not require this matter [to] be remanded to the Pike Circuit Court. . . ." Ibid. In response to the
On March 22, 1974, respondent filed a memorandum opinion and order remanding the case to the Pike Circuit Court. The opinion noted petitioners' contention that they had a "right" to remove the action by properly invoking 28 U.S.C. § 1441, and remarked that "[t]he court must concede that fact." Record 36. That right, the opinion then stated, nevertheless had to be "balanced against the plaintiffs' right to a forum of their choice and their right to a speedy decision on the merits of their cause of action." Ibid. Because of the District Court's crowded docket and because other cases had priority on available trial time, [Footnote 3] "plaintiffs' right of redress
Petitioners then filed in the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit their alternative petition for writ of mandamus or prohibition, requesting relief on the ground that the action had been properly removed and that respondent had no authority or discretion whatsoever to remand the case on the ground asserted by him. Based on the petition and respondent's response, the Court of Appeals denied the petition after concluding (1) that the District Court had jurisdiction to enter the order for remand and (2) that the Court of Appeals
The issue before us now is whether § 1447(d) also bars review where a case has been properly removed and the remand order is issued on grounds not authorized by § 1447(c). Here, respondent did not purport to proceed on the basis that this case had been removed "improvidently and without jurisdiction." Neither the propriety of the removal nor the jurisdiction of the court
Removal of cases from state courts has been allowed since the first Judiciary Act, and the right to remove has never been dependent on the state of the federal court's docket. It is indeed unfortunate if the judicial manpower provided by Congress in any district is insufficient to try with reasonable promptness the cases properly filed in or removed to that court in accordance with the applicable statutes. But an otherwise properly removed action may no more be remanded because the district court considers itself too busy to try it than an action properly filed in the federal court in the first instance may be dismissed or referred to state courts for such reason. McClellan v. Carland, 217 U. S. 268
We disagree with that conclusion. Section 1447(d) is not dispositive of the reviewability of remand orders in and of itself. That section and § 1447(c) must be construed together, as this Court has said of the predecessors to these two sections in Employers Reinsurance Corp. v. Bryant, supra at 299 U. S. 380-381, and Kloeb v. Armour & Co., 311 U. S. 199, 311 U. S. 202 (1940). These provisions, like their predecessors, "are in pari materia, [and] are to be
construed accordingly, rather than as distinct enactments. . . ." Employers Reinsurance Corp. v. Bryant, supra, at 299 U. S. 380. This means that only remand orders issued under § 1447(c) and invoking the grounds specified therein -- that removal was improvident and without jurisdiction -- are immune from review under § 1447(d). Section 1447(d) has its roots in the Act of Mar. 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 52. Prior to 1875, orders of remand were not reviewable by appeal or writ of error for want of a final judgment. Railroad Co. v. Wiswall, 23 Wall. 507 (1875). Section 5 of the Judiciary Act of 1875, 18 Stat. 472, provided that, if the trial court became satisfied at any time during the pendency of a case brought in or removed to that court that the case did not really or substantially involve a dispute or controversy properly within its jurisdiction, the action was to be either dismissed or remanded to the court from which it was removed, as justice might require. The section expressly provided that the order dismissing or remanding the cause was to be reviewable on writ of error or appeal. [Footnote 10] The Act of Mar. 3, 1887, however, while not disturbing
These provisions for the disposition of removed cases where jurisdiction was lacking or removal was otherwise improper, together with the prohibition of appellate review, were later included in §§ 28 and 37 of the Judicial Code of 1911, appeared in 28 U.S.C. §§ 71 and 80 (1946 ed.), 36 Stat. 1094, 1098, and endured until 1948 [Footnote 12] when
Until 1948, then, district courts were authorized to remand cases over which they had no jurisdiction or which had been otherwise "improperly" removed, and district court orders "so remanding" were not appealable. It was held that a case remanded for want of jurisdiction under § 80, which itself contained no prohibition of appellate review, was an "improperly" removed case under § 71, and hence subject to the reviewability bar of that section. Employers Reinsurance Corp. v. Bryant, 299 U. S. 374 (1937). But under the plain language of § 71, a case was "so remanded" and within the reviewability prohibition only if it had been improperly removed. Insofar as we are advised, no case in this Court ever held that § 71 prohibited appellate review by mandamus of a remand order not purporting to be based on the statutory ground. [Footnote 14]
Sections 1447(c) and (d) represent the 1948 recodification of §§ 71 and 80. They were intended to restate the prior law with respect to remand orders and their
reviewability. [Footnote 15] There is no indication whatsoever that Congress intended to extend the prohibition against review to reach remand orders entered on grounds not provided by the statute.
In so holding, we neither disturb nor take issue with the well established general rule that § 1447(d) and its
In accordance with the foregoing cases, this Court has declared that, because an order remanding a removed
The Court begins its discussion in this case by asking the wrong questions, and compounds its error by arriving at the wrong answer to at least one of the questions thus posed. The principal, and, in my view, only, issue presented
Congress' purpose in barring review of all remand orders has always been very clear -- to prevent the additional delay which a removing party may achieve by seeking appellate reconsideration of an order of remand. The removal jurisdiction extended by Congress works a significant interference in the conduct of litigation commenced in state court. While Congress felt that making available a federal forum in appropriate instances justifies some such interruption and delay, it obviously
The majority attempts to avoid the plain language of § 1447(d) by characterizing the bar to review as limited to only those remand orders entered pursuant
The Court seems to believe the instant case different because it has determined to its satisfaction that respondent's order was not merely an erroneous application
Morey, 123 U.S. at 123 U. S. 58.
Even if one were to accept the majority's theory that "so remanding" somehow limited the otherwise universal prohibition against review, there is no such phrase in the current statute. The majority attempts to avoid this by contending that Congress "intended to restate the prior law with respect to remand orders and their reviewability." Ante at 423 U. S. 349-350. But this assertion flies in the face of the fact that, in revising and codifying Title 28, Congress intended to, and did, work significant changes in prior law governing the Judicial Code and the judiciary. The House Committee made clear that the proposed revisions to the removal provisions effectuated a substantially altered and less cumbersome scheme of removal, in which several prior avenues to federal court had been removed so as to restrict federal jurisdiction. H.R.Rep. No. 308, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 6, A133-A134.
Finally, I perceive no justification for the Court's decision to ignore the express directive of Congress in favor of what it personally perceives to be "justice" in this case. If anything is clear from the history of the prohibition against review, it is that Congress decided that potential
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