Opinion ID: 466437
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Removal of Case

Text: 17 Plaintiffs continue to assert that the district court should have remanded the case back to the Commonwealth courts since Congress intended to bar the removal of cases arising under the FLSA. In support, they rely principally on the particular phrasing in the Act that a FLSA suit may be maintained in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 216(b) (emphasis added). Plaintiffs assert that the use of maintained means not simply that state and federal courts share concurrent jurisdiction over FLSA suits but also that Congress intended that any FLSA action begun in a state (or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) court be concluded there. 18 It is true that prior to 1948 the one circuit court that addressed the issue found the language significant and held that Congress intended to prohibit the removal of FLSA actions. See Johnson v. Butler Brothers, 162 F.2d 87 (8th Cir.1947). In 1948, however, Congress amended the general removal statute to provide that civil actions may be removed [e]xcept as otherwise expressly provided by Act of Congress. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1441(a) (emphasis added). While courts remain split, the weight of subsequent case law is in favor of permitting FLSA cases begun in state courts to be removed to the federal courts pursuant to the authority contained in section 1441(a). 17 See generally 14A C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure Sec. 3729, at 496-97 nn. 56-57 (2d ed. 1985) (collecting cases); Annot., A.L.R.Fed. 919 (1972 & Supp.1985). 19 As the first circuit court to face this issue since the 1948 amendment, we find ourselves in agreement with those district courts that have allowed removal. Section 1441(a) explicitly states that an express provision by Act of Congress is required to preclude the right to removal. We think the words expressly provided must be construed to mean exactly that. See Pueblo International, Inc. v. DeCardona, 725 F.2d 823, 827 (1st Cir.1984). Lacking an explicit statutory directive by Congress that the customary right to remove is abrogated in the instance of FLSA suits, 18 we decline to prohibit their removal. The words may be maintained are ambiguous; at best they are suggestive. They are not an express provision barring the exercise of the right to removal. If Congress wished to give plaintiffs an absolute choice of forum, it has shown itself capable of doing so in unmistakable terms, 19 and it could easily have done so here. 20 We are aware that sensible policy arguments can be made against the removal of FLSA suits, although reasonable arguments the other way can also be marshalled. See Sicinski v. Reliance Funding Corp., 461 F.Supp. 649 (S.D.N.Y.1978); Hill v. Moss-American, Inc., 309 F.Supp. 1175, 1178 (N.D.Miss.1970). But Congress has made it plain that the right of removal is to stand absent an express provision to the contrary, and it is the responsibility of Congress, not of the courts, to speak on the matter if it wishes to foreclose removal of FLSA cases. We hold, therefore, that since the district court has original jurisdiction of the suit, and nothing in the FLSA or the general removal statute expressly prohibits the removal of FLSA actions, the case was properly removed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1441.