Halsey v. Agco Corp.
| Decision Date | 08 November 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 17-6403,17-6403 |
| Parties | SCOTT HALSEY and KIMBERLY HALSEY, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. AGCO CORPORATION and TITAN TIRE CORPORATION, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 18a0567n.06
ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
Before: COLE, Chief Judge; WHITE and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.
NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Scott Halsey's troubles began when he bought a new tractor. Two days after the purchase, the tractor rolled over onto Halsey while he was bailing hay. Halsey suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken arm and nearly blacking out. Halsey filed a complaint in Kentucky state court, bringing claims against the manufacturer of the tractor, AGCO, and the manufacturer of the tractor tire, Titan Tire. The crux of Halsey's complaint was that AGCO and Titan somehow created a defective tractor, which caused a tire to blow, prompting the rollover. But unfortunately for Halsey, his troubles did not end with the tractor.
Halsey's complaint did not quantify his damages in dollars. Halsey did allege, however, that he suffered medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, physical pain, mental suffering, and permanent impairment of his ability to work and earn money. In response, AGCO sent discovery requests to Halsey—asking him whether he was seeking more than $75,000 in damages (the threshold amount for federal jurisdiction). At first, Halsey refused to answer. But months later, he admitted that his past medical expenses were $42,105.36. Halsey also reaffirmed that he wanted damages for pain and suffering—but that he could not determine the amount of those damages until the parties completed discovery. Finally armed with some dollar amount, AGCO removed the case to federal court. AGCO argued that, when combining the past medical expenses with the additional pain and suffering damages, it was more likely than not that Halsey's alleged damages exceeded $75,000. The district court agreed and denied Halsey's motion to remand the case to state court.
Things got only worse for Halsey in federal court. In April 2017, the district court created the case schedule, which included a June 1, 2017 deadline for Halsey to complete discovery and identify his expert witnesses. (And to be sure, Halsey knew of this deadline no later than March.) But discovery did not go smoothly. The parties argued over discovery requests, deposition topics, and scheduling—which at one point forced the district court to quash Halsey's discovery notices as "too overreaching and burdensome." The district court also pushed back the deadline to identify expert witnesses, giving Halsey an extra month. But still, Halsey failed to meet the July 1, 2017 deadline. The district court denied Halsey's later motions to amend the scheduling order and for leave to file late expert disclosures. And when Halsey finally disclosed his expert witnesses (which the district court disregarded as untimely), he identified only medical experts—failing to disclose any expert that could testify about the tractor.
With no expert to explain how the tractor was allegedly defective, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and dismissed the case. The district court explained, "expert proof is necessary to show that the alleged defect was a substantial factor in causing[Halsey's] injury," but he has "not presented any evidence, expert or otherwise, that a particular use of the tractor (on an incline, bearing loads above a certain weight, etc.)" could have "resulted in the unreasonable risk of a rollover situation." (Opinion, R. 139 at 7-8.) Said another way, without an expert, Halsey could not prove his case.
Halsey now appeals several of the district court's orders, including denial of the motion to remand, various discovery rulings, and the grant of summary judgment. But because we agree that federal jurisdiction is proper, the district court did not abuse its broad discretion over discovery, and Halsey failed to introduce sufficient evidence to support his case, we affirm the district court.
To start, we review "determinations of subject matter jurisdiction de novo." Smith v. Nationwide Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 505 F.3d 401, 404 (6th Cir. 2007). "Generally, a civil case brought in a state court may be removed by a defendant to federal court if it could have been brought there originally." Rogers v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 230 F.3d 868, 871 (6th Cir. 2000) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a)). At issue here is whether the defendants met their burden to show that the district court had "diversity" jurisdiction when they removed the case. This means AGCO properly removed the case if "the suit is between citizens of different states and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, exclusive of costs and interest." Id. (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)).
There is no dispute that AGCO met the first requirement. Halsey (and his wife, Kimberly) live in Kentucky, AGCO is a Delaware business headquartered in Georgia, and Titan is a Delaware business headquartered in Illinois. The question is whether the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000.
"Generally, because the plaintiff is the 'master of the claim,' a claim specifically less than [$75,000] should preclude removal." Rogers, 230 F.3d at 871. But removal becomes more complicated when the plaintiff claims an unspecified amount of damages. See Naji v. Lincoln, 665 F. App'x 397, 400 (6th Cir. 2016). In this situation, we place the burden on the party seeking to remove the case to federal court "to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the amount in controversy requirement has been met." Hayes v. Equitable Energy Res. Co., 266 F.3d 560, 572 (6th Cir. 2001); Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens, 135 S. Ct. 547, 553-54 (2014). But this is not a "dauting burden" that requires the defendants to "research, state and prove the plaintiff's claim for damages." Hayes, 266 F.3d at 572 (citing Gafford v. Gen. Elec. Co., 997 F.2d 150, 158 (6th Cir. 1993)). Instead, the defendants need only "show that it is 'more likely than not' that the plaintiff's claims" exceed $75,000. Rogers, 230 F.3d at 871 (quoting Gafford, 997 F.2d at 158). We calculate this amount at the time of removal. Id. at 871-72.
In the notice of removal, AGCO explained why Halsey's claims exceeded $75,000. AGCO compared Halsey's unspecified damages—including future medical expenses, pain and suffering, property damage, lost wages, and impairment to his ability to work and earn money—to his $42,105.36 in past medical expenses. According to AGCO, if Halsey added the value of his unquantified damages to his past medical expenses, it was more likely than not that the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000. In other words, by comparison, Halsey's pain and suffering and other unquantified damages were likely worth at least $32,894.65. See Freeland v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 632 F.3d 250, 252-53 (6th Cir. 2011) (requiring $75,000 and "one penny"). In response to Halsey's motion to remand, AGCO argued that Halsey knew his claims exceeded thejurisdictional amount but refused to give any dollar amount for his pain and suffering1 because he wanted to avoid federal jurisdiction.
On appeal, Halsey does not contest that his pain and suffering may very well push his damages over the $75,000 necessary for federal jurisdiction. Instead, Halsey argues that AGCO failed to meet its burden to prove that the pain and suffering in fact did.2
But AGCO did not encounter a "daunting burden" in removing the case. Instead, AGCO needed only to file "a short and plain statement of the grounds for removal," Dart Cherokee, 135 S. Ct. at 553 (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 1446(a)), "show[ing] that it is 'more likely than not' that the plaintiff's claims" exceed $75,000. Rogers, 230 F.3d at 871. AGCO did more—it engaged in state-court discovery to determine the amount of Halsey's damages before it removed the case. See id. (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c)(2)(B)). And to be sure, both sides point fingers over the completeness of the discovery requests and answers. But as the district court explained, after discovery, "it's obvious that there's $42,000 in medical expenses." (Tr. Mot. to Remand Hr'g, R. 150 at 17.) Discovery also confirmed that Halsey sought pain and suffering damages in "a fair amount," which as his previous discovery requests explained, may or may not total more than$75,000 when added to his past medical expenses. And although Halsey refused to quantify his pain and suffering damages, the district court explained that in its "experience over 41 years of doing this, [it] would say that there would be at least three times the [$42,000 in] pain and suffering." (Id.) See Valinski v. Detroit Edison, 197 F. App'x 403, 405 (6th Cir. 2006) ().
Further, it is telling that Halsey refused to deny that his damages exceeded $75,000. AGCO specifically asked Halsey to "[a]dmit that you are seeking more than $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs, as damages for the claims asserted in the action." (Req. Admis., R. 20-1 at 2.) But Halsey responded that he could "neither admit nor deny that he will seek more than $75,000 in this action due to a lack of information and knowledge." (Halsey Resp. to Req. Admis., R. 20-3 at 1.) The Seventh Circuit has faced this situation several times. See, e.g., Webb v. Frawley, 858 F.3d 459, 461-62 (7th Cir. 2017). And if the plaintiff refuses to admit or deny that his damages exceeded $75,000, the Seventh Circuit applies an inference that the plaintiff "thinks his claim may be worth more." Id. at 462 (quoting Workman v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 234 F.3d 998, 1000 (7th Cir. 2000)); see also Wright & Miller, 14AA Fed. Prac. & Proc. Juris. § 3702.1 n.18.20 (4th ed. 2018) (...
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