Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co., LLC v. Owens, No. 13-719 (docket).  The question presented is:

Whether a defendant seeking removal to federal court is required to include evidence supporting federal jurisdiction in the notice of removal, or is alleging the required “short and plain statement of the grounds for removal” enough?

This is a Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) case in which the district court refused to consider evidence concerning the amount in controversy, when the evidence was presented in an opposition to a motion to remand, because the evidence had not been attached to the defendant’s notice of removal.  A panel of the Tenth Circuit denied permission to appeal under CAFA, and an equally-divided panel of the Tenth Circuit denied rehearing en banc.

As I covered in my October 11, 2013 blog post, Judge Hartz wrote a persuasive dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc, in which he relied on 28 U.S.C. 1446(a), which requires a notice of removal “containing a short and plain statement of the grounds for removal, together with a copy of all process, pleadings, and orders served upon such defendant or defendants in such action.”  The removal statute does not require that evidence be attached to a notice of removal.  Judge Hartz also cited Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1), which provides that a pleading contain “a short and plain statement of the grounds for the court’s jurisdiction   . . . .” 

I could turn out to be wrong, but given my recent luck in picking 3 of the 4 Final Four teams in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, I’m going to venture a prediction on this case:  a 9-0 decision agreeing with Judge Hartz.  Congress seems to have clearly answered this question in the removal statute, and it appears from the petition for certiorari that all of the circuits that have addressed the question have agreed with Judge Hartz.

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Photo of Wystan Ackerman Wystan Ackerman

Wystan Ackerman is a partner in Robinson+Cole’s Insurance + Reinsurance Group and handles a diverse range of property insurance litigation, including large business interruption cases, class actions, other complex litigation, and appeals. He also has substantial experience representing insurance companies in putative class…

Wystan Ackerman is a partner in Robinson+Cole’s Insurance + Reinsurance Group and handles a diverse range of property insurance litigation, including large business interruption cases, class actions, other complex litigation, and appeals. He also has substantial experience representing insurance companies in putative class actions involving homeowners’ insurance coverage and market conduct/claim-handling practices. He has been prominently involved in high-profile property insurance litigation concerning the September 11th catastrophe and Hurricane Katrina, and Chinese-made drywall. Based in the insurance capital of Hartford, Connecticut, Wystan writes the blog Insurance Class Actions Insider, which was selected by Lexis Nexis as a top insurance blog for 2011.

Wystan grew up in Deep River, Connecticut, a small town on the west side of the Connecticut River in the south central part of the state. He always had strong interests in history, politics and baseball and his heroes growing up were Abraham Lincoln and Wade Boggs (at that time the third baseman for the Boston Red Sox). Wystan says it was his early fascination with Lincoln that drove him to practice law. As a high school senior, he was one of Connecticut’s two delegates to the U.S. Senate Youth Program, which further solidified his interest in law and government. He went on to Bowdoin College, where he wrote for the Bowdoin Orient and majored in government. After Bowdoin, he went on to Columbia Law School. He also interned in the chambers of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Circuit. Wystan graduated from Columbia in 2001, then worked at Skadden Arps in Boston before returning to Connecticut and joining Robinson+Cole.

When Wystan’s not at his desk, flying around the country trying to save insurance companies from the plaintiffs’ bar, or attending a conference on class actions or insurance litigation he often can be found watching “Dora the Explorer” or reading or playing whiffleball with his young daughter, helping his wife with her business, Option Realty, reading a book about history or politics, or watching the Boston Red Sox.

Read Wystan’s rc.com bio.