Lippitt

John Lippitt originally sued a number of brokerage firms in state court, praying for *1036 relief under California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) that was unavailable in federal court. He now appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to remand the removed case back to state court. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the decision to retain the case as exclusively within federal jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Lippitt’s Complaint

Lippitt has nominated himself as a private attorney general to bring an action on behalf of the general public to challenge the marketing by national brokerage firms (“Defendants”) 1 of an instrument known as a “callable certificate of deposit” or “callable CD.” The complaint scrupulously avoided any pretense of complying with Fed.R.Civ.P. 8, which calls for a short and plain statement of the claim. Instead, it expended some 11 pages of prolixity in an effort to describe a cause of action under California’s Unfair Competition Law, codified at Cal. Bus. & Prof.Code § 17200 et seq. Defendants removed the case asserting that the district court had original jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and exclusive jurisdiction under § 27 of the 1934…