Durham v. Lockheed Martin Corp.

A defendant has thirty days to remove a case on diversity or federal question grounds. We consider whether the thirty-day clock is reset if the defendant later discovers the case is also removable on federal officer grounds.

Facts

Plaintiff Gerald Durham suffers from lung cancer, which he alleges was caused by exposure to asbestos during his thirty-year service as an electronics technician for the United States Air Force and Air Force Reserves. Durham filed his complaint against Lockheed Martin and sixty other defendants on August 7, 2003, in California Superior Court. In his complaint, Durham listed the Air Force facilities where he worked, but didn’t allege which Lockheed products exposed him to asbestos. Durham’s complaint incorporated by reference a Master Complaint filed by his law firm against 8,500 John Doe defendants, which was equally short on detail.

Plaintiff served Lockheed Martin on August 15, 2003. Lockheed didn’t attempt to remove the case to federal court on federal enclave grounds because, based on past experience, it believed some of its co-defendants would be unwilling to consent to removal. Ten days later, Lockheed received plaintiffs answers to…