The District Court's order remanding a removed diversity tort
action to the state courts for apparent lack of complete diversity
among the parties was clearly within 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c),
which provides for remanding a removed action when the district
court determines that "the case was removed improvidently and
without jurisdiction," and hence, under § 1447(d), was not
reviewable by the Court of Appeals.
Thermtron Products, Inc. v.
Hermansdorfer, 423 U. S. 336,
distinguished.
Certiorari granted; ___ F.2d ___, reversed and remanded.
PER CURIAM.
This tort action was removed from the Texas state courts to the
United States District Court on the grounds of diversity of
citizenship, but was remanded as having been "improperly removed"
when it seemed that there was not complete diversity among the
parties. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, by mandamus,
ordered the District Court to vacate its remand order because the
latter had employed erroneous principles in concluding that it was
without jurisdiction.
The Court of Appeals erred. Title 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c)
provides for remanding a removed action when the district court
determines that "the case was removed improvidently and without
jurisdiction"; and when a remand has been ordered on these grounds,
28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) unmistakably commands that the order
"remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is
not reviewable on appeal or otherwise. . . ." The District Court's
remand order was plainly within the bounds of § 1447(c), and
hence was unreviewable by the Court of Appeals, by mandamus or
otherwise.
Thermtron Products, Inc. v. Hermansdorfer,
423 U. S. 336
Page 430 U. S. 724
(1976), is not to the contrary, for there the District Court
remanded "on grounds wholly different from those upon which §
1447(c) permits remand."
Id. at
423 U. S. 344.
Thermtron did not question, but reemphasized, the rule
that § 1447(c) remands are not reviewable.
The petition for certiorari is granted, the judgment of the
Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.