Opinion ID: 754067
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Carl Heck Engineers

Text: 8 Although there is a split among the circuits on the point, this court has held that a third-party indemnity defendant may remove a case to federal court pursuant to § 1441(c). See Carl Heck Engineers v. Lafourche Parish Police Jury, 622 F.2d 133 (5th Cir.1980). 1 Neither the Regents nor Low is a third-party indemnity defendant because there is no basis for Walker to assert that they are liable for any part of his alleged debt to the state. See Fed.Rule Civ.P. 14; Tex.Rule Civ.P. 38. Rather, the Regents, joined in their individual capacities, and Low, newly joined both in his official and individual capacities, are counter-defendants in Walker's counterclaim. This court has not previously extended the Carl Heck rationale to ordinary counter-defendants. Doing so would fly in the face of the well-pleaded complaint rule where the counter-defendants were the same parties as the state court plaintiffs. 2 9 Here, however, the consequence of permitting removal satisfied Carl Heck without breaching the well-pleaded complaint rule. We shall assume that the Regents cannot remove under § 1441(c) when joined in their individual capacities as counter-defendants, because (in their official capacities) they were the plaintiffs by and through whom the state sued Walker. Low, on the other hand, was not a party in the case in any way before Walker sued him for § 1983 violations. If the rationale of Carl Heck correctly affords third-party defendants the opportunity of § 1441(c) removal to federal court, to which they could have removed when sued alone, then that rationale protects Low.