Marshall v. Kansas City Southern Ry. Co.
| Decision Date | 04 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-61067 Summary Calendar.,03-61067 Summary Calendar. |
| Citation | 378 F.3d 495 |
| Parties | Merlean MARSHALL, individually and on behalf of all wrongful death beneficiaries of Lucy R. Shepard, deceased; Alonzo Marshall, individually and on behalf of all wrongful death beneficiaries of Lucy R. Shepard, deceased; Eric Shepard, individually and on behalf of all wrongful death beneficiaries of Lucy R. Shepard, deceased; Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY; Eric W. Robinson; Robert E. Everett; C.L. Duett; John Does, 1 Thru 10; Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Leonard J. McClellan, Herbert Lee, Jr., Lee & Associates, Jackson, MS, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Charles T. Ozier, Charles Henry Russell, III, Wise, Carter, Child & Caraway, Jackson, MS, for Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Before JOLLY, DAVIS and WIENER, Circuit Judges.
On appeal, Plaintiffs-Appellants identified in the caption of this case ("Plaintiffs") challenge the district court's denial of their motion for remand to state court. The district court had ruled that the non-diverse defendants were fraudulently joined and refused to certify an interlocutory appeal of that ruling to us. After one unsuccessful attempt to appeal that decision to our court, Plaintiffs continued their efforts to gain an expedited appeal on this issue by attempting to manufacture appellate jurisdiction by voluntarily seeking dismissal of their claims against the diverse Defendant-Appellee, Kansas City Southern Railway Company ("KCS"). In so doing, Plaintiffs have forfeited their right to appeal — presumably inadvertently — because we must also dismiss this second appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction.
This case arises out of a fatal railroad crossing accident that occurred in Scott County, Mississippi. The accident occurred when a van, driven by Lucy R. Shepard, collided with a KCS train. Shepard was killed, and her passenger, Phyllis B. McKee, was injured. Plaintiffs, as representatives of Shepard's wrongful death beneficiaries, filed this action in Mississippi state court asserting, inter alia, claims under that state's wrongful death statute. McKee filed a separate negligence action (the "McKee case").1 In addition to KCS,2 three members of the train crew, C.L. Duett, Eric Robinson, and Robert Everett (collectively the "train crew"), were named as defendants in both actions for their allegedly negligent operation of the train. While this suit was pending in state court, Defendants propounded requests for admissions asking Plaintiffs to admit that there was no basis for joining the train crew defendants in this action. Plaintiffs failed to respond timely to Defendants' requests for admissions. Arguing that Plaintiffs' failure to respond resulted in the conclusive admission that no viable cause of action existed against the train crew,3 Defendants removed the action to federal court on the assertion that the train crew defendants, who are Mississippi residents, were fraudulently joined solely to defeat diversity jurisdiction.
Plaintiffs filed a motion in district court seeking remand to state court. In support of this motion, Plaintiffs submitted a sworn statement by Officer Jeff Pitts, a witness to the collision between KCS's train and Shepard's van. The district court ordered that a remand deposition of Officer Pitts be taken and that the parties submit a transcript of his deposition to the court.
After reviewing Officer Pitts' deposition, the district court denied Plaintiffs' motion for remand. The court concluded that Officer Pitts' deposition "work[ed] against the plaintiffs" and that they could not establish any cause of action against the train crew. The district court consequently dismissed the train crew defendants from the action. Plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration to which they appended additional evidence and documentation to demonstrate the train crew's potential liability. The district court denied this motion, too.
Plaintiffs then appealed the district court's denial of their motion for remand and dismissal of the train crew defendants to this court. As the district court's remand decision was not certified for interlocutory appellate review under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) or Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), we dismissed that effort to obtain an interlocutory review because we lacked appellate jurisdiction.4
Next, the district court entered a scheduling order establishing a discovery completion deadline and setting the case for trial. Meanwhile, the McKee case had proceeded to trial, and a jury had rendered a verdict in favor of KCS.5 On learning of that verdict, Plaintiffs filed a pleading styled Motion for Entry of Final Judgment in Favor of Defendant (the "Motion for Final Judgment"). This motion, which professed to rely on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54, stated that this case and the McKee case involved the same defendant (KCS) and identical issues. In their motion, Plaintiffs asserted that, "[s]ince the Court and [KCS] have previously opined that the jury's verdict in McKee and the final judgment entered pursuant to that verdict are binding upon the Plaintiff and [KCS] herein, there is no just reason to delay the entry of a final judgment in this action." Plaintiffs, therefore, asked the district court to "direct the entry of a final judgment against the Plaintiff and in favor of the Defendant in this action." Importantly, the Motion for Final Judgment said nothing about whether Plaintiffs were seeking dismissal with or without prejudice.
KCS filed a response in which it stated that Plaintiffs had miscited Rule 54 as the governing rule. Instead, explained KCS, "[t]he proper rule under which the Plaintiff should be proceeding is Rule 41(a)(2)." KCS made the following representation:
Defendant [KCS] has no objection to Plaintiff's request for dismissal of her claims against this Defendant and for entry of final judgment with prejudice in this Defendant's favor. It is apparent from Plaintiffs' Motion, and from representations by her counsel to this Defendant and the Court, that Plaintiff wishes to terminate proceedings before this Court and appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this Court's rulings denying the Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand and Motion to Reconsider Order Denying Remand. Defendant would agree to entry of an order dismissing Plaintiffs' claims with prejudice and expressly reserving the Plaintiffs' right to challenge this Court's subject matter jurisdiction over this action on appeal to the Fifth Circuit.(6)
Before the district court ruled on the Motion for Final Judgment, though, Plaintiffs filed yet another motion for reconsideration of the district court's initial order denying remand. This time they cited evidence from the McKee trial to demonstrate the viability of their claims against the train crew defendants.
In ruling on Plaintiffs' two pending motions, the district court first acknowledged that Plaintiffs had predicated their Motion for Final Judgement on Rule 54(b), but agreed with KCS and construed Plaintiffs' motion as one for voluntary dismissal under Rule 41(a)(2). The district court then granted Plaintiffs' motion, stating:
There is no counterclaim in the instant case and the defendants do not object to the plaintiffs' motion. Therefore, the above styled and numbered cause is hereby dismissed in accordance with Rule 41(a)(2). As a special condition of this dismissal, the plaintiffs' motion for this court to enter a final judgment in favor of the defendants ... is hereby granted. This court hereby grants final judgment in favor of the defendants.
In the same order, the district court went on to deny Plaintiffs' renewed motion for reconsideration of the remand issue. Plaintiffs timely filed their notice of appeal, designating this order as the decision from which they were appealing.
Plaintiffs appeal the district court's denial of their motion for remand. In support, Plaintiffs advance arguments essentially identical to those advanced in McKee's appeal to this court, contesting the district court's denial of her motion for remand.7 By attempting to manufacture appellate jurisdiction through the voluntarily dismissal of the remainder of their action against KCS, however, Plaintiffs have unwittingly stepped into the so-called "finality trap,"8 thereby forfeiting altogether their right to appeal the district court's remand decision.
The starting point of our analysis is 28 U.S.C. § 1291, the jurisdictional statute on which Plaintiffs now rely in seeking appellate relief from us. Generally, all claims and issues in a case must be adjudicated in the district court, and a final judgment or order must be issued, before our jurisdiction can be invoked under § 1291.9 This "final judgment rule" creates appellate jurisdiction only after a decision that "ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment."10 Here, the district court refused to certify its denial of Plaintiffs' motion for remand for an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). Neither did the court enter a final judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b) in favor of the dismissed train crew defendants.11
All parties agree that the McKee case and this action involved the same defendant (KSC), identical operative facts, and substantially overlapping legal claims. Additionally, both cases proceeded before the same district judge. Consequently, after the jury rendered a verdict for KCS in the McKee case, the Plaintiff (and possibly the district court as well) apparently expected KCS to raise the defense of res judicata or issue preclusion in this case. Critically, though, nothing in the record reflects any assertion of these defenses by KCS.12 Instead, Plainti...
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