Court Opinion

ID: 9442839
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:01:22.782309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:15.341020
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially).
I agree with the majority that the complaint does not state a separate and independent claim or cause of action against the nonresident Railroad Company, and that the case therefore should be remanded to the state court. But, I arrive at my conclusion for wholly different reasons.
The basis of my conclusion is that a pleading which alleges but one wrong or injury, for which single relief is sought, cannot constitute a separate and independent claim, no matter how many defendants are said to be liable therefor, or how diverse the basis of their liability. Thus, the basis of the liability may be in tort for the co-active or mutually dependent acts of the defendants, as here, and in Bentley v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co., 5 Cir., 174 F.2d 788; Edwards v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 5 Cir., 183 F.2d 165; and Willoughby v. Sinclair Oil & Gas Co., 10 Cir., 1951, 188 F.2d 902; or it may be conditioned in the alternative as in American Fire and Casualty Co. v. Finn, 71 S.Ct. 534. A separable controversy could and often was pleaded in one claim or cause of action under the removable statute before revision. And, separate independent claims may be permissibly pleaded under Section 1441(c). But, what is permissibly pleaded as one claim cannot conceivably be made into separate and independent claims under Section 1441(c). Here, the plaintiff pleaded but one injury and sought but one judgment. He stated but one claim, which cannot be separate and independent within the meaning of Section 1441(c).
A separate and independent claim is a permissible pleading in a suit in which more than one redressible wrong or injury is alleged and for which separate and independent relief is sought. If separate and independent relief is sought against more than one defendant, one of which is a nonresident, the nonresident, as to whom alone separate and independent relief is sought, may remove the entire suit to the federal court. After removal, the court may retain the entire case, or in the interest of the administration of justice, remand the separate and independent claim between the local parties.
I respectfully dissent from the reasoning of the majority because, in my judgment, it leaves the erroneous impression that a pleading which states a claim for relief in the requisite amount against a resident and nonresident, and which does not specifically allege that the harm or injury was brought about by the co-active or mutually dependent acts of the resident and nonresident defendants, is susceptible of being removed as a separate and independent claim or cause of action. This construction of Section 1441(c) fails to recognize and assimilate the rule of modern pleadings. See Rules 8(a, e), 10(b) and 54(c), F.R.C.P., 28 U.S.C.A. It is misleading and dangerous because it leads us back into the confusing paths of separable controversy.
In sum, I would adopt the ready test suggested, but not adopted, in the Willoughby case.