Eva Hall v. North American Van Lines, Inc. George Correa All City Moving and Storage

We consider whether federal law preempts state law claims for breach of an interstate shipping contract and for common law fraud and conversion. The district court concluded that it had removal jurisdiction over Plaintiff-Appellant Eva Hall’s complaint because her claims were completely preempted by the 1906 Car-mack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, 49 U.S.C. § 14706 . The district court denied Hall’s motion to remand and dismissed each of her claims.

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

I

The district court dismissed Hall’s complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). We accept as true the facts as Hall pleaded them in her complaint. See Maduka v. Sunrise Hosp., 375 F.3d 909, 911 (9th Cir.2004).

Eva Hall contracted with North American Van Lines in March 2001 to ship her household goods from San Francisco, California to Montana. The contract comprised a service order and a bill of lading. The bill of lading required that any claim for “loss or damage, injury or delay” be filed within nine months after “a reasonable time for delivery has elapsed.” Although the contract omitted the estimated shipping charges and estimated…