A popular Chilean folk singer named Víctor Jara was tortured and killed in the wake of the 1973 military coup that toppled Salvador Allende’s government and brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Nearly 40 years later, Jara’s family discovered that his suspected killer, a former Chilean military officer named Pedro Pablo Barrientos Núñez, had moved to…
Tag: Subject-matter jurisdiction
Primary Defendants Tied to Liability for Damages in Class Actions Seeking Monetary Relief
In an opinion published June 14, 2017, Hunter v. City of Montgomery, 2017 WL 2634162, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the lower court’s remand order under the home state exception to the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”). The central issue was the classification of a party as one of the “primary defendants” within the meaning of CAFA….
CAFA’s Local-Controversy Provision Can’t Trump Federal-Question Jurisdiction
The Eleventh Circuit reinstated a federal RICO case but approved the denial of a motion to remand it to state court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) in Blevins v. Aksut, No. 16-11585, 2017 WL 782288 (11th Cir. Mar. 1, 2017). The court’s opinion confirms that CAFA’s local-controversy provision, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4), does not strip…
Patronage Capital Class Action Removable; Dismissal Affirmed
An electric cooperative organized under state law is nonetheless entitled to remove a putative class action to federal court under the “federal officer” removal statute, according to the Eleventh Circuit in Caver v. Central Alabama Electric Cooperative, 845 F.3d 1135 (11th Cir. 2017), which also affirmed dismissal of a complaint seeking immediate return of patronage capital. Specifically,…
Collateral Challenge to Constitutionality of SEC Administrative Procedure to be Dismissed for Lack of Jurisdiction
On June 17, the Eleventh Circuit decided Hill v. SEC, 825 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir. 2016), vacating the district court’s grant of two motions for preliminary injunctions prohibiting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) administrative enforcement proceedings. The Eleventh Circuit consolidated two cases where the plaintiffs had each challenged the SEC administrative procedure on grounds, among others,…