Court Opinion

ID: 9492098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:32:04.367005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:06.535614
License: Public Domain

WIENER, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in the foregoing opinion, but I write separately (1) to emphasize the narrowness of our holding .today, (2) to encourage the state court to which this case is remanded to recognize that counsel for Copling so grossly mischaracterized his client’s cause of action as a state breach of *598contract claim as to approach frivolousness; the most cursory of looks at the legal document executed by Copling, a competent major, confirms beyond cavil that he voluntarily signed an enrollment document in a dental plan that is governed exclusively by ERISA, (3) to furnish additional guidance to the courts and the litigants regarding the interplay of ERISA preemption and the federal removal statute, and (4) to note the importance of carefully pleading the appropriate type of preemption — conflict or complete — in cases such as this.
First, in concurring in the foregoing panel opinion, I start with the observation that we are reaffirming the well-established principle that 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) precludes absolutely our review of a district court’s order that, pursuant to § 1447(c), remands a case to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. As the panel opinion, correctly notes, not only is there no appellate jurisdiction to review such a remand, but a district court that concludes it lacks jurisdiction necessarily cannot adjudicate on the merits any issue of ERISA conflict preemption. And, as I observe below, conflict preemption is the only kind of preemption that the parties have placed before the district court in this case.
Second, I acknowledge the important corollary that, when an action is timely removed under § 1441(a), the district court to which it has been removed does have jurisdiction to decide whether a claim is completely preempted by ERISA, thereby making remand improper. Importantly, in considering complete preemption, the district court is not — I repeat, not — bound by a plaintiffs self-serving characterization of his claim; on the contrary, the court can determine for itself whether in actuality the claim asserted arises under an employee benefit plan covered by ERISA.1 I cannot determine with any degree of certainty whether the able trial judge in this case simply accepted the plaintiffs characterization of his claim as breach of contract under state law, in a mistaken belief that the court was somehow bound under the well-pleaded complaint doctrine (which it was not), or if the court just failed to consider and discern the true ERISA nature of the plaintiffs complaint. I am satisfied, however, that the district court was not bound to accept unquestioningly Copling’s allegation that he entered into a contract with his employer separate and apart from the very ERISA plan in which he enrolled, expressly and in writing. The court quite properly could have considered whether Copling signed an election to have payroll deductions used to fund his participation in the subject ERISA-covered medical and dental plan (action that the limited record in this case clearly confirms that he took), and could then have treated the claim — as none other than Copling himself elsewhere characterized it — as one for “misrepresentation of the terms of the Plan,” undeniably a claim exclusively grist for the ERISA mill. The saving grace of this misstep is that our colleague on the state bench to which this case is remanded will have ample opportunity to correct it.
Finally, I would urge the district courts of this Circuit to remain mindful of the important burden they bear as a result of the interaction of § 1447 and ERISA preemption: As § 1447(d) does not permit appellate review of a remand order based on a conclusion that no complete preemption exists, it is incumbent on the district courts, when considering remand motions, to decide complete preemption issues with the utmost of care, and — importantly—to do so without addressing any conflict preemption issue that might remain as an affirmative defense to be resolved subsequently, regardless of whether the case is remanded to state court or retained in federal court. In like manner, lawyers representing defendants who are relying on ERISA preemption should remain ever *599mindful that a federal district court cannot decide a question of complete preemption unless it is asked to do so by a party — the court cannot “lawyer” the case on its own. As, alone, conflict preemption will not sustain removal, it is the responsibility of counsel for a defendant who seeks to remain in federal court by meeting its burden of justifying remand, to articulate clearly and with specificity — and to establish — a viable argument for complete preemption. Even though a complete preemption issue clearly lurks in the record of this case, it was not presented to the district court. Thus, that court’s order of remand resolves no preemption issue of any kind. Unless I miss my bet, however, conflict preemption will be presented lucidly to the state court on remand, where our learned state colleagues will, I am confident, address these matters and decide them correctly.

. See Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 53, 66, 107 S.Ct. 1542, 95 L.Ed.2d 55 (1987); Hansen v. Continental Ins. Co., 940 F.2d 971, 979 (5th Cir.1991).