You’ve just received a call that a defendant has filed third-party class action counterclaims against your client in state court. Your client wants to remove the claims against it to federal court, in order to benefit from the direct attention and case management that a federal court provides. You know that an original plaintiff may not remove a counterclaim against it, but what about a third-party counterclaim defendant? Does a “defendant” under the removal statute mean a third-party counterclaim defendant? Does “any defendant” under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) truly mean any defendant? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the answer, in all of these questions, is no.

In a recent article, ”Getting Out of Dodge: Removing a Case From State to Federal Court,” we provided an overview of the procedure regarding removal as well as some of the grounds for removing a civil case from state to federal court. Since then, the Supreme Court, in Home Depot v. Jackson, ruled in a 5-4 decision to winnow the list of defendants eligible to remove a case from state court to federal court. This article is a follow-up and provides an overview of the Supreme Court’s recent decision and an update to the state of the law surrounding who can file for removal.

Overview of ‘Home Depot v. Jackson’