Phillips

ORDER REMANDING ACTION TO THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The recent passage of the Judicial Improvement and Access to Justice Act (hereafter the “Act”) has raised a number of questions regarding the removal of pending state cases, on diversity grounds, in which fictitious defendants are named. This case is one of the first snowballs in what has become an avalanche of notices of removal, and its facts present two important procedural issues: (1) what is the effect of the Act upon the requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 1446 (b) that a removal be filed within thirty days of service of the complaint or, if the action was not removable when first filed, within thirty days of receipt of a “pleading, motion, order, or other paper” from which it may first be determined that the action is removable; and (2) does the new one year limit on the removal of diversity cases, as specified in § 1016(b)(2)(B) of the Act (amended 28 U.S. C. § 1446(b)(2) (2d paragraph)), apply to cases pending on the effective date of the Act?

The complaint in this action was filed in Superior Court for the County of Los An-geles on February 18, 1986, and included various state…