Schabhuttl v. BJ's Membership Club Inc.

Delay Alone Does Not Show Bad Faith; Motion to Remand to Supreme Court Granted

Thank you for sharing!

Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER Plaintiff Barbara Schabhuttl moves to remand the instant action to state court. (See generally Pl’s. Mot. (Dkt. 9).) For the reasons stated below, Plaintiff’s motion is GRANTED. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff alleges that she was injured when she slipped and fell at Defendants’ store located at 711 Stewart Ave, Garden City, New York on January 28, 2019. (Pet. f. Removal (Dkt. 1) 2.) She filed a civil action for an unspecified amount of damages against the Defendants on January 28, 2022 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Nassau. (Id.

1, 4; Ex. A to Pet. f. Removal (Dkt. 1-2) at ECF 19.) On March 22, 2022, Defendants served Combined Discovery Demands on Plaintiff, asking for information on various topics, (Ex. A to Defs.’ Opp. (Dkt. 12-1) 20); Defs’ Opp. 4), including “a copy of all documents that will be introduced at trial to establish economic loss.” (Defs.’ Opp. 20.) After receiving no response, Defendants sent Plaintiff good faith letters for discovery on April 19, 2022 and May 26, 2022. (Ex. B to Defs.’ Opp. (Dkt. 12-2).) They followed up by filing a Motion to Compel on July 11, 2022. (Ex. C to Defs.’ Opp. (Dkt. 12-3).) Plaintiff ultimately provided a Verified Bill of Particulars and a Response to the Combined Discovery Demands on January 23, 2023, (Ex. E to Pl’s. Mot. (Dkt. 9-5) at ECF 21; Ex. F to Pl’s. Mot. (Dkt. 9-6)), and verbally demanded $1,500,000 in damages at a status conference on January 24, 2023. (Pet. f. Removal 6; Pl’s. Mot. 12.) Defendants removed the action based on diversity jurisdiction on February 2, 2023, more than one year after Plaintiff filed her Complaint. (See generally Pet. f. Removal.) Plaintiff now seeks to remand this case back to state court under 28 U.S.C. §1447, arguing that Defendants’ failure to comply with the one-year removal period under 28 U.S.C. §1446(c)(1) renders this court without subject matter jurisdiction. (Pl’s. Mot.

Schabhuttl v. BJ's Membership Club Inc.

Delay Alone Does Not Show Bad Faith; Motion to Remand to Supreme Court Granted

Share with Email

Thank you for sharing!

Trending Stories

More From ALM

Subscribe to New York Law Journal