Opinion ID: 3001084
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The 30-Day Removal Clock

Text: Price first invokes the time limit in 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b), which requires a defendant to file for removal within 30 days of receiving the initial pleading setting forth the claim for relief (or receipt of the summons if the initial pleading is not required to be served). Price argues that this period expired 30 days after the defendants received the complaint in 1993, even though the case was voluntary dismissed two weeks after it was filed. He claims that under Indiana law, a lawsuit is not actually terminated when it is voluntarily dismissed, but rather remains pending indefinitely until such time as the plaintiff may seek reinstatement. He bases this argument on the distinction between a “cause of action” and a “cause” in Indiana law; a “cause” refers to a lawsuit, whereas a “cause of action” refers to an individual theory of liability within a “cause.” See e.g., Songer v. Civitas Bank, 771 N.E.2d 61, 66-67 (Ind. 2002). Price maintains that he voluntarily dismissed only his “cause of action” in 1993; he insists that his “cause” remained pending (emptied, as it were, of its “cause of action”), and the 30-day removal clock kept on ticking and expired. 4 Price’s attorney attempted to argue to the contrary during oral argument, but eventually admitted he had conceded this point both in district court and in his appellate brief. No. 06-2072 7 What utter nonsense. To the extent there is a difference between a “cause” and a “cause of action” under Indiana law, that difference is completely irrelevant here. Songer defined these terms in the context of determining whether a single lawsuit containing both legal and equitable claims required a jury trial; the case neither involved nor made any mention of voluntary dismissals. See id. at 66. Price cannot identify a single case supporting the notion that a voluntary dismissal terminates the “cause of action” but not the “cause.” This is undoubtedly because the idea is so ridiculous; a “cause” (that is, lawsuit) cannot continue to exist once every “cause of action” within it has been dismissed. The Prices’ voluntary dismissal terminated the entire case against the defendants. The “cause” did not remain pending, nor did the removal clock continue to run after the voluntarily dismissal. Based on this same theory of a continuously pending lawsuit, Price also maintains that the defendants had a duty to continuously check the docket and therefore should be charged with constructive notice of the reinstated proceedings. This argument badly misconstrues basic principles of voluntary dismissal under Indiana law. “[O]nce a suit is voluntarily dismissed[,] the situation is just as though the suit has never been filed.” Burnett v. Camden, 254 N.E.2d 199, 201 (Ind. 1970). A voluntarily dismissed suit may be reinstated pursuant to Rule 41(F) of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure, and “[w]hen a case is dismissed and then reinstated, it stands as if it had not been dismissed.” Waitt v. Waitt, 429 N.E.2d 6, 7 (Ind. App. 1981) (holding that a party who failed to move for a change of venue within 30 days of receiving the initial complaint was not entitled to a new 30-day time limit when the case was reinstated after voluntary dismissal). Accordingly, although the procedural obligations of the parties pick up exactly where they left off once a voluntarily dismissed action is validly reinstated, the defen- 8 No. 06-2072 dants obviously have no ongoing obligations during the time in which the suit is dismissed. Upon reinstatement, the notice rights and duties of the parties depend upon the position the parties were in when the action was voluntarily dismissed. Price’s theory of constructive notice is unsupported and unsupportable; the defendants were entitled under Indiana law to actual notice of the motion for reinstatement and all subsequent pleadings. The Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure require a party to serve notice of all pleadings and motions on any party who is not in default. IND. R. TRIAL P. 5(A). The record establishes that the defendants could have been in possession of the complaint for no more than 11 days at the time it was voluntarily dismissed.5 This is well within the 23 days which Indiana allows a defendant served by mail to file an appearance or answer. No default could have been entered against either defendant prior to dismissal; the defendants were in good standing when the case was voluntarily dismissed and thus were in good standing when it was reinstated. Price therefore had a duty under Rule 5(A) of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure to serve the motion to reinstate on the defendants—a duty that his counsel apparently deliberately ignored. Price cites Lyerson v. Hogan, 441 N.E.2d 683 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982), but that case involved neither a voluntary dismissal nor a defendant in good standing. Lyerson involved a lawsuit that languished for two years with- 5 The American Cyanamid return of service lacks a date of delivery, so it is unclear precisely when the defendant first received the complaint and summons. However, the summons states that it was mailed on June 14, 1993, and even assuming it was delivered that same day, only 11 days would have passed by June 25. The Lederle Laboratories return of service indicates that it was delivered June 24, 1993. No. 06-2072 9 out an appearance or answer by the defendants and without any activity from the plaintiffs. The court dismissed the case for failure to prosecute; the plaintiffs orally moved to reinstate without notifying the defendants. The Court of Appeals of Indiana held that no notice was necessary in these circumstances because the defendants were in default at the time the case was dismissed. Id. at 686. The court cited a provision in Rule 5(A) of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure that excludes parties in default from the notice requirement unless the pleading asserts new or additional claims for relief. Id. Rather than supporting Price’s position, Lyerson thus confirms that parties not in default at the time of dismissal must be served with the motion for reinstatement. The record demonstrates that the defendants did not receive notice of the reinstated lawsuit until June 14, 2004, when they were served with process in the garnishment proceedings. They sought removal eight days later, well within the 30-day limit even when the 11 days from June 1993 are counted. Accordingly, removal was timely, and the district court properly denied the motion to remand.