Court Opinion

ID: 9488961
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:00:57.918145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:13.035844
License: Public Domain

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe that the “complete preemption” doctrine should be applied to allow removal jurisdiction in this case, I respectfully dissent.
In concluding that the “complete preemption” corollary to the well-pleaded complaint rule should not be invoked when a defendant seeks to remove on the basis of the Medical Device Amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (“MDA”), 21 U.S.C. § 360, the majority relies on our en banc decision in Warner v. Ford Motor Co., 46 F.3d 531 (6th Cir.1995). In Warner, we held that no removal jurisdiction exists under Section 514 of the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1144, because “§ 1144 preemption does not create a federal cause of action itself, and cannot convert a state cause of action into a federal cause of action under the well-pleaded complaint rule.” Id. at 534. The majority analogizes to this reasoning of Warner to conclude that, because § 360k(a) of the MDA also does not create a parallel federal cause of action, § 360k(a) preemption cannot convert a state cause of action into a federal question under the well-pleaded complaint rule.
In my view, the majority errs in suggesting that mere preemption, absent the simultaneous creation of a federal cause of action, means that removal jurisdiction is never possible. See Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 391 n. 4, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 2429, n. 4, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987) (expressly disagreeing with lower court’s reasoning that actions may not be removed to federal court on grounds of complete preemption unless federal law both displaces and supplements state law with a federal cause of action). Rather, the operative inquiry in determining whether the complete preemption doctrine authorizes removal is “the intent of Congress,” which may be either express or implied from the statutory text. Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U.S. 497, 504, 98 S.Ct. 1185, 1189-90, 55 L.Ed.2d 443 (1978); Stamps v. Collagen Corp., 984 F.2d 1416, 1420 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 86, 126 L.Ed.2d 54 (1993).
In my view, Congress made explicit in § 360k(a) and related provisions its comprehensive preemptive intent, for the reasons expressed by the district court in Richardson v. Advanced Cardiovascular Sys., Inc., 865 F.Supp. 1210 (E.D.La.1994). I would therefore affirm the district court’s denial of the motion to remand, and also its dismissal of plaintiff’s claims on the basis of complete preemption for the reasons expressed in its opinion dated September 22,1994.