The Supreme Court unanimously decided corporate
defendants cannot remove state court cases to
federal court simply because the corporations are
regulated by the federal government. |
In a case joined by Public Justice as part of its Access to
Justice Campaign, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled
June 11 that
a class action
against tobacco giant Phillip Morris cannot be removed to
federal court simply because “light” cigarettes are subject
to federal regulation and the cigarette maker asserts a
federal preemption defense.
The decision
overturned an Eighth Circuit ruling that would have allowed
corporate defendants to eliminate most state court cases
against them by removing them to federal court. In its
amici brief, Public Justice maintained that because
Phillip Morris is not a federal officer and cannot claim it
was engaged in federal law enforcement when it privately
made and sold “light” cigarettes, the removal from state
court was improper.
"The
question before us," Justice Breyer wrote for the Court in
Watson v. Philip Morris, "is whether the fact that a
federal regulatory agency directs, supervises, and monitors
a company's activities in considerable detail" allows the
company to remove cases to federal court
under the federal officer removal statute -- which
authorizes removal by those "acting under" an "officer" of
the United States.
"We hold that it does
not."
Had the appellate court decision prevailed, it could have
prevented plaintiffs from bringing almost any case in state
court against any corporation subject to federal regulation,
including products liability, toxic tort, environmental, and
other cases.
Attorneys who
worked on the amici curiae brief on behalf of
Public Justice, the American Association for Justice, and
the Consumer Attorneys of California included Gerson Smoger
of Oakland's Smoger & Associates;
Michael J. Quirk and
Esther Berezofsky
of Williams Cuker Berezofsky in Philadelphia and New
Jersey; Leslie
Brueckner and Arthur Bryant of Public
Justice; and
Jeffrey White of the Center for
Constitutional Litigation.
To read the U.S. Supreme Court's decision
Watson,
click here.
To read Public
Justice's amici brief,
click here.
