GSK Loses Its Bid to Re-Remove

We've been following the diversity-jurisdiction saga of a GlaxoSmithKline holding company ("GSK").  Last year in Johnson v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., No. 12-2561 (3d Cir. June 7, 2013), the Third Circuit ruled that GSK's ten-by-ten foot subleased office in Delaware makes Delaware its principal place of business and thus a Delaware citizen for diversity purposes.

Since then, GSK has tried to use its newfound Delaware citizenship to forum-shop in several other diversity cases.  Before Johnson, GSK had removed one of these cases, A.S. v. SmithKlineBeecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, a personal injury case alleging that GSK's drug Paxil caused birth defects, from Pennsylvania state court.  The district court remanded the case in 2012, holding that GSK was a Pennsylvania citizen.  After Johnson held in 2013 that GSK was a Delaware citizen, GSK removed the case a second time.  This time, the district court denied plaintiffs' motion to remand.

On an interlocutory appeal by permission, the Third Circuit reversed and remanded with instructions to remand to Pennsylvania state court.  The court held that the second removal was untimely under 28 U.S.C. §1446(b), both because it was filed more than 30 days after GSK's receipt of the complaint, and because in a diversity case, removal may not occur more than one year after the commencement of the action.  The court rejected both equitable tolling of the time period and the notion that the second notice of removal "related back" to the first notice of removal.  A.S. v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, No. 14-1229 (3d Cir. Oct. 9, 2014).

Hat tip: Howard Bashman of the How Appealing blog, who argued the successful appeal for the plaintiffs.