Court Opinion

ID: 9446032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:44:26.285145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:29.948012
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I would affirm. I agree with the majority that the issues had not been joined on the merits so as to allow the District Court to treat the stage of the proceedings as equivalent to an answer or motion for summary judgment. If Harvey Aluminum, Inc., v. American Cyanamid Co., 2 Cir., 1953, 203 F.2d 105, certiorari denied 345 U.S. 964, 73 S.Ct. 949, 97 L.Ed. 1383 and the other cases cited by Judge Herlands stand only for that proposition and if that is the sole exception to the literal language of Rule 41(a) (1), the decision should be reversed. I believe, however, that Harvey means that we need not allow the literal language of the Rules to defeat the interests of justice and sound judicial administration. Cf. Hormel v. Helvering, 1941, 312 U.S. 552, 557, 61 S.Ct. 719, 85 L.Ed. 1037; Bucy v. Nevada Const. Co., 9 Cir., 1942, 125 F.2d 213, 216.
The facts set out by Judge Herlands show, and the thrust of his opinion is, that the plaintiff presumed upon the Court in an attempt to shift his forum. The plaintiff filed the notice of dismissal after he had been defeated on the motion to transfer and after he had expressly requested and received a delay in transfer for the purpose of reargument. On the same day that he dismissed he initiated an action in the New York courts. The District Court has an area of discretion to prevent trifling tactics of this nature. The action of the majority seems to me to lose sight of the larger objective in the process of embracing a technicality.
It seems apparent that the plaintiff, not having achieved the result for which he hoped on the motion to transfer the action to Florida, has now changed his tune as to his citizenship and has started an action in the Supreme Court of New York County on the theory that he is a *482New York citizen. Thus the merry-go-round goes around again and under the removal statute the parties may be knocking on the door of the Federal Courthouse once more.
Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure enjoins us to construe the rules “to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” I think the injunction applies to this kind of forum shopping which multiplies expense and delay. The District Court had the power to vacate the voluntary dismissal under such circumstances as took place here. Exercising this power in such a proper case was not an abuse of discretion and I would affirm.