Opinion ID: 512583
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Removal Statutes

Text: 21 Section 1441(a) of Title 28 provides in pertinent part that any civil action brought in a State court of which the district courts of the United States haveoriginal jurisdiction, may be removed by the defendant ..., to the district court ... for the district ... where such action is pending (emphasis added). The civil rights removal statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1443(2), provides in pertinent part that any civil action commenced in state court [f]or any act under color of authority derived from any law providing for equal rights, or for refusing to do any act on the ground that it would be inconsistent with such law may be removed by the defendant to the district court ... for the district ... embracing the place wherein it is pending (emphasis added). 22 The initial question to be considered on this appeal is whether the City of Yonkers was correctly deemed by the district court to be a defendant for removal purposes under either statute. Appellants argue that Yonkers was not a proper party to petition the state court to remove the Article 78 proceedings since it was the plaintiff in the underlying condemnation proceedings, and the Article 78 proceedings were merely state law procedural vehicles for raising defenses to the condemnation petitions. See Matter of Piotrowski v. Town of Glenville, 101 A.D.2d 654, 475 N.Y.S.2d 511, 512 (3d Dep't 1984) (defenses to condemnation action are properly brought via an Article 78 proceeding); but cf. Town of Coxsackie v. Dernier, 105 A.D.2d 966, 482 N.Y.S.2d 106, 107 (3d Dep't 1984) (challenge to condemnation may be made by way of an answer in that proceeding). In this regard, appellants cite two Supreme Court decisions,Mason City & Fort Dodge R.R. v. Boynton, 204 U.S. 570, 579-80, 27 S.Ct. 321, 323-24, 51 L.Ed. 629 (1907) and Chicago, Rock Island & Pac. R.R. v. Stude, 346 U.S. 574, 580, 74 S.Ct. 290, 294, 98 L.Ed. 317 (1954), for the proposition that, regardless of the state's procedural provisions, where a party seeks to remove a condemnation proceeding to federal court, the condemnor is the plaintiff and the condemnee is the defendant. 23 The United States and the NAACP, 2 intervenors herein, respond by pointing out that the actions removed from state court were the Article 78 proceedings, not the underlying condemnation proceedings. Indeed, the condemnation actions are still pending in state court. In the Article 78 proceedings, the City of Yonkers clearly was the defendant. Intervenors argue that the Article 78 actions were separate proceedings from the condemnation actions and that the Mason City and Chicago, Rock Island decisions are distinguishable. 24 Both Supreme Court decisions cited by appellants involved Iowa eminent domain statutes under which the condemnee was required to initiate a proceeding contesting the assessment of the condemned property's value arrived at by a sheriff's jury. In that separate proceeding, the condemnee was the plaintiff under state law. In each case, the Supreme Court held that in construing the removal statute, federal law determined who was the plaintiff and who was the defendant, Chicago, Rock Island, 346 U.S. at 580, 74 S.Ct. at 294; Mason City, 204 U.S. at 579, 27 S.Ct. at 323; see Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 104, 61 S.Ct. 868, 870, 85 L.Ed. 1214 (1941) (state procedural law cannot supersede privilege of removal granted by federal statute), and that the condemnor remained the plaintiff for purposes of removal. 25 Intervenors contend that the Article 78 proceedings were fundamentally different from the state court actions in Mason City and Chicago, Rock Island, which constituted challenges to property valuations. Their argument essentially is that the issues decided in the removed Article 78 proceedings--whether the City complied with state procedural requirements, whether the sites were properly designated, and whether the condemnation of the Seminary site violated the first amendment--were separate issues resolvable apart from the question of the valuation of appellants' properties, the sole remaining question in the condemnation actions. On the other hand, as appellants persuasively point out, the defenses they raised in their answers to the condemnation petitions were identical to their claims in the Article 78 petitions. 26 In view of the foregoing, we have serious doubts in light of Mason City and Chicago, Rock Island whether the removal statutes provided a proper basis to compel the City of Yonkers to remove the Article 78 proceedings to federal court. Quite simply, a party who is in the position of a plaintiff cannot remove. Cf. White v. Wellington, 627 F.2d 582, 586 (2d Cir.1980) (right to remove is statutory, jurisdictional and absolute). Nevertheless, we need not resolve this difficult question since the district court asserted an independent basis for removal jurisdiction under the All Writs Act. We turn now to consideration of removal under that statute.