Opinion ID: 194981
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statutory Bar.

Text: 9 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1447(d) provides that [a]n order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise. Although this statute prohibits appellate review of remand orders whether erroneous or not and whether review is sought by appeal or by extraordinary writ, Thermtron Prods., Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423 U.S. 336, 343, 96 S.Ct. 584, 589, 46 L.Ed.2d 542 (1976), the proscription is deeper than it is wide. Because courts must read section 1447(d) in pari materia with its statutory neighbor, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1447(c), see Thermtron, 423 U.S. at 353, 96 S.Ct. at 593, only remand orders issued under the authority of section 1447(c) are rendered unreviewable by the operation of section 1447(d), see Garcia v. Island Program Designer, Inc., 4 F.3d 57, 58-59 (1st Cir.1993); V & M Management, 929 F.2d at 832-33. And, since section 1447(c), by its terms, is concerned exclusively with remands stemming from defect[s] in removal procedure such that the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it follows that section 1447(d) leaves open the possibility of appellate review in all cases that are remanded for reasons not covered by section 1447(c). 10 This is such an instance. Despite the fact that Doughty articulated several reasons for remanding the case, many of which implicated section 1447(c), the district court shunted these asseverations to one side and instead remanded exclusively on the basis of Burford abstention. Because abstention, by definition, assumes the existence of subject matter jurisdiction in the abstaining court--after all, one must have (or, at least, presume the presence of) subject matter jurisdiction in order to decline the exercise of it--section 1447(c) does not apply to an abstention-driven remand. See Corcoran v. Ardra Ins. Co., 842 F.2d 31, 34 (2d Cir.1988). Hence, the statutory bar does not preclude us from reviewing the lower court's remand order. 11