Galt G/S v. JSS Scandinavia

Third-Party Defendant Safeway Stores, Inc. appeals the district court’s exercise of diversity-based subject matter jurisdiction after (1) dismissing dispensable non-diverse parties and (2) aggregating the principal claim amount with the projected attorneys’ fees. Safeway also appeals the grant of summary judgment in favor of Third-Party Plaintiff Hapag-Lloyd, A.G. on its equitable indemnity claim. We affirm the district court’s judgment in its entirety.

I.

In 1987, Safeway placed an order with International Trading Co. (“ITC”), a meat importer, for 35,647 pounds of Danish ham. ITC arranged for the shipment of the ham from a supplier in Aarhus, Denmark to the Safeway warehouse in Stockton, California. Defendant Hapag-Lloyd, A.G. (“Hapag-Lloyd”) is the ocean carrier which shipped the ham from Denmark to the Port of Oakland. Defendant CAN Transport, Inc. (“CAN”) transported the ham by truck from Oakland to Sacramento. In Sacramento, Defendant Crystal Ice & Cold Storage (“Crystal Ice”) stored the ham until Defendant D & D Services (“D & D”) picked it up and transported it by truck to Safeway’s facility in Stockton. These are all hereafter referred to as “the transportation…