Opinion ID: 668570
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Removal to the Wrong Division

Text: 38 A defendant who wants to remove a civil action from a state court to a federal district court must file in the district court of the United States for the district and division within which such action is pending a notice of removal.... 58 In this case, the parties agree that the action should have been removed, not to the Houston Division, but to the McAllen Division of the Southern District of Texas. Relying on this error, Kreimerman et al. moved the district court to remand the case to state court, or, alternatively, to transfer the case to the McAllen Division. The court, however, denied the motion. Kreimerman et al. now insist that the court's denial constituted reversible error. 39 Citing King v. Gulf Oil Co., 59 Veerkamp et al. suggest that we simply dismiss this defect in removal by invoking harmless error. 60 As removal statutes are strictly construed against removal, 61 though, we decline to take such a dismissive approach. Some courts have held that removal of a case to the wrong division of the right district nevertheless creates a jurisdictional defect, leaving the district court with no power to adjudicate the case and no choice but to remand. 62 Other courts have held that removal to the wrong division is procedural, not jurisdictional. 63 We agree with the later perspective. 40 Although Veerkamp et al. removed this case to the wrong division, there is no doubt that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1332, given the parties' diversity of citizenship. 64 The existence of such jurisdiction makes this case much more akin to an improper venue situation than to one in which there is an actual jurisdictional defect. 65 The district court thus should have transferred the case to the McAllen division under the authority of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1406(a), which--in the interest of justice--allows a case to be transferred to any district or division in which it could have been brought. 66 As we are remanding the case to the district court anyway, we need not decide whether the court's refusal to transfer the case constituted reversible error: We simply remand the case to the Houston Division with directions to transfer the case to the McAllen Division under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1406(a).