Ebony Bridewell-Sledge v. Blue Cross of California

■ The present appeal involves two similar class actions that were filed against the same defendants, in the same California superior court, on the same day thirteen minutes apart, and that were consolidated by the state court “for all purposes.” Despite the fact that the two actions had been consolidated into a single action, Defendants filed two separate notices of removal, citing the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (d). The district court, in evaluating whether it had CAFA jurisdiction over the removed action, analyzed the consolidated case as though it remained two separate class actions, and concluded that CAFA’s local controversy exception applied to the first-filed class action, Bridewell-Sledge v. Blue Cross of California, but that the exception did not apply to the second-filed class action, Crowder v. Blue Cross of California. The district court remanded Bridewell-Sledge to state court while retaining jurisdiction over Crowder, the anomalous result of which is that, despite the state court’s consolidation of Bridewell-Sledge and Crowder into a single class action “for all purposes,” Bridewell-Sledge is now proceeding in state court, while…