In Lamar v. Home Depot, ___ F. Supp. 2d ___, 2012 WL 6026272 (S.D. Ala. Dec. 3, 2012), Lamar instituted a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Mobile County. In Count I, he sought medical benefits under the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act; in other counts, he asserted claims for breach of contract, fraud and outrageous conduct. The defendants removed the action asserting diversity-of-citizenship jurisdiction. Lamar filed a motion to remand. Relying on his reading of Reed v. Heil Co., 206 F.3d 1055 (11th Cir. 2000), Chief District Judge Steele concluded that he was compelled to remand just Count I, the workers’ compensation claim, and to deny the request to transfer the other claims.
Hopefully, at some point in time, the Eleventh Circuit will address this decision and, especially, Steele’s conclusions that there was no “piecemeal” removal and that defendants can successfully remove a lawsuit containing a workers’ compensation claim with an appreciation that the workers’ compensation claim will have to be remanded while the federal court retains jurisdiction as to the other, non-workers’ compensation claims.
Obviously, we will encounter this opinion because, in similar scenarios, defendants will remove our lawsuits and cite the opinion when we seek a “full” remand.
