Anderson v. Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.

• Decision Date: 22 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A. 3:03CV6LN.,CIV.A. 3:03CV6LN.
• Citation: 326 F.Supp.2d 760
• Parties: Angelia ANDERSON, et al. Plaintiffs v. NISSAN MOTOR ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION, et al. Defendants
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi

Page 760

326 F.Supp.2d 760

Angelia ANDERSON, et al. Plaintiffs v. NISSAN MOTOR ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION, et al. Defendants

No. CIV.A. 3:03CV6LN.

United States District Court, S.D. Mississippi, Jackson Division.

August 22, 2003.

Edward Blackmon, Jr., Blackmon & Blackmon Law Firm, Canton, MS, Julian Dewayne Thomas, Julian Dewayne Thomas, Attorney, Jackson, MS, Joseph L. Tucker, Jackson & Shuttlesworth, P.C., James V. Doyle, Jr., K. Stephen Jackson, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiffs.

T. H. Freeland, III, Freeland & Freeland, Sidney R. Hill, III, Mitchell, McNutt, Threadgill, Smith & Sams, David D. O'Donnell, Howorth O'Donnell Walsh, Oxford, MS, James Bruinsma, Dykema Gossett Rooks Pitts, PLLC, Chicago, IL Ralph Edward Young, Jr., William W. Simmons, Glover, Young, Walton, Phillips & Tucker, PLLC, Meridian, MS, William Briggs Hopson, III, Teller, Chaney, Hassel & Hopson, Vicksburg, MS, Allan P. Bennett, Vikki J. Taylor, Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A., Joseph E. Roberts, Jr., Pittman, Germany, Roberts & Welsh, David Aaron Norris, McGlinchey Stafford, Henry E. Chatham, Jr., A. Spencer Gilbert, III, Brenda M. Currie, Wise, Carter, Child & Caraway, Brenda B. Bethany, J. Wyatt Hazard, Jason H. Strong, Daniel, Coker, Horton & Bell, Jackson, MS, Michael L. Prewitt, Michael L. Prewitt, Attorney, Greenville, MS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

TOM S. LEE, District Judge.

This cause is before the court on the motion of plaintiffs to remand pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1447. Defendant Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (NMAC) has responded in opposition to the motion and has filed an alternative motion to certify order for appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The court, having considered the memoranda of authorities, together with attachments, submitted by the parties, concludes that plaintiffs' motion to remand should be granted, and further concludes that NMAC's motion for certification for interlocutory appeal should be denied.

The eighty-four plaintiffs in this cause filed suit in the Circuit Court of Hinds County, Mississippi against NMAC and approximately thirty Mississippi Nissan dealers alleging claims and seeking damages for defendants' alleged suppression of material facts, deceit/fraudulent concealment, negligent or reckless misrepresentation, conspiracy, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and negligent and/or wanton training and supervision relative to plaintiffs' financing of their automobile purchases from the defendant dealers. Plaintiffs complain, in particular, that the dealer defendants, in combination and conspiracy with NMAC, engaged in a fraudulent and secret scheme to deceive plaintiffs into financing their automobile purchases at inflated rates through NMAC's retail financing program. According to the complaint, NMAC periodically established a schedule of approved rates at which automobile purchases could be financed, the approved rates being established in tiers, based on the applicant's creditworthiness.¹ These rates represented the lowest rates at which NMAC would finance a purchase. Plaintiffs allege, however, that NMAC "trained, allowed, induced, encouraged and conspired with Defendant Dealers to charge rates greater than the approved rates," i.e., to mark up the rates, and in the case of each plaintiff, the defendant dealers (and NMAC) induced plaintiffs to pay a higher rate of interest than NMAC's approved and required rate by misrepresenting to plaintiffs, including by misleading documentation, actions and statements, that the higher rate presented to them was, in fact, NMAC's approved or required rate. Plaintiffs also allege that in the cases of those plaintiffs who are African-American, the defendants further deceived and conspired to defraud them by charging them an even higher mark-up than that charged to similarly situated white applicants, without disclosing that they were being charged a higher rate than the white applicants. Plaintiffs allege that NMAC effected this finance charge mark-up system by agreeing that dealers who were able to induce a customer to enter into a loan at a higher interest rate than the approved rate would be paid a portion of the mark-up.

NMAC promptly removed the case on the dual bases of federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and bankruptcy removal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1452. As to the former, NMAC asserted that federal question jurisdiction exists under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1691 et seq., and the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1982, since the basis of plaintiffs' lawsuit is alleged race discrimination. NMAC contended that bankruptcy jurisdiction also exists pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1334 because one or more of the plaintiffs (perhaps as many as nineteen) had at one time or another subsequent to their loan transactions filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy under the United States Bankruptcy Code and because this lawsuit is therefore property of these plaintiffs' bankruptcy estates which is due to be heard and resolved exclusively by the bankruptcy court.

Federal Question Jurisdiction:

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1441, "any civil action brought in a State court of which the district courts of the United States have original jurisdiction, may be removed by the defendant ... to the district court of the United States for the district and division embracing the place where such action is pending." 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a). Thus, for the district court to have removal jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a) requires that the case be one over "which the district courts of the United States have original jurisdiction." District courts have original jurisdiction over cases concerning a "federal question," that is, cases "arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

The determination whether a plaintiff's claim arises under federal law is made by examining the "well pleaded" allegations of the complaint, ignoring potential defenses. Under this "well pleaded complaint" rule, "`a suit arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States only when the plaintiff's statement of his own cause of action shows that it is based upon those laws or that Constitution....'" Beneficial Nat'l Bank v. Anderson, 539 U.S. 1, 123 S.Ct. 2058, 2062, 156 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003) (citations omitted). Thus, "[a]s a general rule, absent diversity jurisdiction, a case will not be removable if the complaint does not affirmatively allege a federal claim." Id.See also Heimann v. National Elevator Indus. Pension Fund, 187 F.3d 493, 499 (5th Cir.1999) ("It is well-settled that a cause of action arises under federal law only when the plaintiff's well-pleaded complaint raises issues of federal law.").

Because the well-pleaded complaint rule provides that jurisdiction will be determined based solely on the plaintiff's complaint, "the rule makes the plaintiff master of the claim, and federal jurisdiction may be avoided by exclusive reliance on state law.... Accordingly, even if both federal and state law provide a remedy, the plaintiff can avoid federal jurisdiction by pleading solely state law claims — at the price, of course, of foregoing the federal remedies." Credit Acceptance Corp. v. Addison, 2000 WL 33324363, *2 (N.D.Miss.2000) (citations omitted). See also Avitts v. Amoco Prod. Co., 53 F.3d 690, 693 (5th Cir.1995) (stating that "when both federal and state remedies are available, plaintiff's election to proceed exclusively under state law does not give rise to federal jurisdiction"). In other words, "[i]n the event a plaintiff asserts claims which have a basis in both federal and state law, the plaintiff as `master' of his complaint may decline to press his federal claims in favor of litigation premised exclusively on state law-effectively defeating the possibility of removal, but accepting the risk that his federal claim may be barred." Willis v. Life Ins. Co. of Ga., Civ. Action No. 4:00CV323-PB, 2001 WL 34403088 (N.D.Miss. May 31, 2001). Here, plaintiffs have done just that. Indeed, plaintiffs point out that not only is no federal claim apparent on the face of their complaint, but that they have expressly alleged that this is a tort action brought under the laws of the State of Mississippi, and that they

bring this action based entirely upon the common laws and statutory laws of Mississippi ... and do not rely upon any federal statute, any federal question, and do not seek relief under any federal statute of law.

Thus, they have expressly and unequivocally elected to pursue their claims under state law despite the availability of a federal remedy.

Defendant submits, though, that while there are circumstances in which a plaintiff may avoid federal court by exclusive reliance on state law, this is not the case here, where state law does not provide the remedy plaintiffs seek. In this regard, NMAC contends that although in their complaint, plaintiffs have not identified any federal law as a basis for their claims, nevertheless, inasmuch as plaintiffs are suing for race discrimination, they are necessarily raising federal claims since their claims for race discrimination are not cognizable under Mississippi law but rather are cognizable only under federal law,² and in particular, under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act³ or the Civil Rights Act.⁴ That is, defendant attempts herein to invoke the artful pleading exception to the well-pleaded complaint rule. See Franchise Tax Bd. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 22, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 2853, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983) (corollary to the well-pleaded complaint rule is the principle that "a plaintiff may not defeat removal by omitting to plead necessary federal questions"). However, in this court's opinion, the Fifth Circuit has made it clear that in the absence of complete preemption, the artful pleading exception does not apply. See Waste Control Specialists, LLC v....