Preston v. Tenet Healthsystem Memorial Medical

• Decision Date: 21 November 2006
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 06-3179.
• Citation: 463 F.Supp.2d 583
• Parties: Elmira PRESTON, et al. v. TENET HEALTHSYSTEM MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, INC., et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

463 F.Supp.2d 583

Elmira PRESTON, et al. v. TENET HEALTHSYSTEM MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, INC., et al.

Civil Action No. 06-3179.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

November 21, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Christopher James Bruno, David Scott Scalia, Joseph M. Bruno, Bruno & Bruno, Gerald Edward Meunier, Todd Robert Slack, Gainsburgh, Benjamin, David, Meunier & Warshauer, Roderick Alvendia, Alvendia, Kelly, & Demarest, LLC, Tammie E. Holley, Tammie Holley, LLC, New Orleans, LA, for Elmira Preston, Howard Preston, Rose Lefrance Preston, Sheryl Preston, Deborah Mazie, Anthony Preston, Leonard Preston, Darlene Preston, Cynthia Preston, Angela Nelson, Wanda Preston, Bryan Preston, Tyrone Preston, William Hagstette, Jr., Leroy Lafayette, Roosevelt Lafayette, Fred Lafayette, Eddie Lee Lafayette, Gabriel Lafayette, Samuel Lafayette, Larry Lafayette, Edna Lafayette Newsome, Eola Lafayette Moore, Lillie Lafayette Moore, Robert Hennessey, Rachelle Guillory, Christopher Guillory, Bryan Blackwell, Mark Leblanc, Aster Abraham, Terry Gaines-Oden, Leslie N. Brooks, Evelina Barnes.

Kurt Stephen Blankenship, Gregory Alexis Grefer, Robert I. Baudouin, Blue Williams, L.L.P., Metairie, LA, for Tenet Healthsystem Memorial Medical Center, Inc.

Paul G. Preston, Darrin L. Forte, Pamela J. Lormand, Scott P. Yount, Preston Law Firm, LLP, New Orleans, LA, Antonio M. Clayton, Clayton Law Finn, Port Allen, LA, S. Vance Wittie, Wayne Brian Mason, Sedgwick, Detert, Morgan & Arnold, LLP, Dallas, TX, for Lifecare Hospital of New Orleans, L.L.C., Lifecare Management Services, LLC.

David Alva Woolridge, Jr., Carlton Jones, III, Roedel, Parsons, Koch, Blache, Balhoff & McCollister, Baton Rouge, LA, for Louisiana Patient's Compensation Fund Oversight Board.

ORDER AND REASONS

FALLON, District Judge.

On July 14, 2006, the Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Remand (Rec.Doc. 15) the above-captioned case to state court. This motion came for hearing with oral argument on August 22, 2006. The Court concluded that more information was needed on the jurisdictional issues and ordered the parties to conduct limited discovery. During the discovery period, however, the Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Withdraw their-Motion to Remand (Rec.Doc. 54). The Court granted the Plaintiffs' Motion to Withdraw (Rec.Doc. 59), but ordered that the parties file supplemental briefing on information revealed through the jurisdictional discovery process. As the Court has now been fully advised on the jurisdictional issues, the Court determines for the following reasons that it may not hear this case and orders that the action be REMANDED to the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

This lawsuit arises from the injuries and/or deaths of patients at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in late August and early September of 2005. After the storm, conditions at the hospital deteriorated rapidly. Without electrical power, temperatures in the hospital quickly approached one-hundred-and-ten degrees, sanitation systems were overwhelmed, and life-altering decisions were made regarding patient evacuations. According to reports, more than one thousand people were trapped at the hospital due to floodwaters rising more than eight feet in height. Though helicopter rescues began within a day of the storm's passing and several rescue boats ferried hundreds of patients to higher ground, many vulnerable patients remained trapped at the hospital. In total, approximately thirty-five people passed away in these chaotic circumstances.¹

Various patients and relatives of both deceased and allegedly injured patients ("Plaintiffs") filed the instant action against Tenet Healthsystem Memorial Medical Center, Inc. d/b/a Memorial Medical Center ("Memorial") In Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans on October 6, 2005. The Plaintiffs subsequently amended their petition four times to include a request for class certification under Louisiana law and to include as Defendants Lifecare Management Services, Inc., d/b/a LifeCare Hospital and LifeCare Hospital of New Orleans, L.L.C., d/b/a LifeCare Hospital (together, "LifeCare"), who leased space from Memorial and operated an acute-care unit on the seventh floor of the hospital.²

In their petition, the Plaintiffs bring claims against Memorial, LifeCare, and their officers and agents (the "Defendants") asserting various allegations of negligence and intentional misconduct, "reverse patient dumping" under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act ("EMTALA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, and involuntary euthanization. The Plaintiffs have filed a class action and propose certification of a class composed as follows:

All patients of Memorial and LifeCare who sustained injuries including death or personal injury as a result of the insufficient design, inspection and/o" maintenance of LifeCare and/or Memorial's back-up electrical system, its failure to implement its evacuation plan and/or its emergency preparedness plan and/or its failure to have a plan which would have facilitated the safe transfer of patients out of harm's way, and its failure to have a plan of care for patients in the event of a power outage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina within the property owned by Memorial and leased and/or operated by LifeCare on or about the time period of August 26[] ... through and including August 29, 2005 and thereafter, and all persons who sustained personal injury as a result of the deaths or personal injuries to patients of LifeCare and Memorial....

(Pls.' Fifth Supplemental and Am. Pet. for Damages).³

II. LifeCare's Notice of Removal

Defendant LifeCare filed a Notice of Removal on June 18, 2006, and subsequently filed an Amended Notice of Removal on June 26, 2006, asserting: (a) that jurisdiction is proper under the Federal Officer Removal Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a)(1), as LifeCare was a person acting under color of federal authority and has colorable defenses to the Plaintiffs' claims; (b) the case falls under the Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act, ("MMTJA"), 28 U.S.C. § 1369, as it involves minimal diversity and a single accident in which at least 75 persons died; (c) the proposed class action consists of more than 100 persons, the aggregated amount in controversy exceeds $5 million, excluding interests and costs, and it meets the minimum diversity requirements of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 ("CAFA"); (d) the EMTALA claim presents a federal question for which the Court has original subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331; and (e) the remainder of the Plaintiffs' claims are so related to the federal claim that this Court should exercise supplemental jurisdiction over such claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367.

III. Standard for Remand

On July 14, 2006, the Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Remand (Rec.Doc. 15). As noted, the Plaintiffs have withdrawn this Motion. However, on November 13, 2006, in response to LifeCare's supplemental briefing opposing remand, LifeCare's co-defendants Memorial filed a memorandum supporting remand and adopting the Plaintiffs' since-withdrawn Motion (Rec. Doc. 93). Thus, the Court has before it Plaintiffs' Motion for Remand resurrected, adopted, and urged by Memorial, which had never consented to removal in the first place.

Whether or not the Motion is viable in view of the Plaintiffs' withdrawal is of no consequence since the Court must sua sponte address the issue and remand the action back to state court if it determines at any time that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c); Ziegler v. Champion Mortgage Co., 913 F.2d 228 (5th Cir.1990). LifeCare claims federal jurisdiction under any of four bases: (i) the Federal Officer Removal Statute; (ii) MMTJA; (iii) CAFA; and (iv) EMTALA. The Court will address each of LifeCare's asserted bases of federal jurisdiction.

The removing defendant ordinarily carries the burden of showing the existence of federal jurisdiction. See Jernigan v. Ashland Oil, Inc., 989 F.2d 812, 815 (5th Cir.1993). As a general matter, the removal statute is to be construed narrowly and in favor of remand to state court. See Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 61 S.Ct. 868, 85 L.Ed. 1214 (1941). Indeed, "doubts regarding whether removal jurisdiction is proper should be resolved against federal jurisdiction." Acuna v. Brown & Root Inc., 200 F.3d 335, 339 (5th Cir.2000). Accordingly, all disputed questions of fact must be resolved in favor of the non-moving party. See Burden v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 60 F.3d 213, 216 (5th Cir.1995). However, as explained below, the traditional standard of review does not apply when reviewing removal under the Federal Officer Removal Statute or the Class Action Fairness Act.

IV. Federal Officer Removal Statute

The Federal Officer Removal Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a)(1), provides in pertinent part:

(a) A civil action ... commenced in a State Court against any of the following may be removed by them to the district court of the United States for the district and division embracing the place wherein it is pending:

(1) The United States ... or any officer (or any person acting under that officer) of the United States or of any agency thereof, sued in an official or individual capacity for any act under color of such office....

The purpose of this statute is to provide a federal forum in cases where federal officials are entitled to raise a defense arising out of their official duties. See Arizona v. Manypenny, 451 U.S. 232, 241, 101 S.Ct. 1657, 68 L.Ed.2d 58 (1981). Though generally remand to state court is favored when removal jurisdiction is questionable, removal jurisdiction under the Federal Officer Removal Statute must be broadly construed. See Willingham v. Morgan, 395 U.S. 402, 407, 89 S.Ct. 1813, 23 L.Ed.2d 396 (1969). Indeed, the Court must interpret the statute liberally, resolving any factual...