Ayemou

MEMORANDUM **

The Dow Chemical Company and Shell Oil Company removed this tort action brought in California state court by Georges Ayemou and numerous co-workers (collectively, “Ayemou”). Ayemou is a foreign national who alleges exposure to 1, 2-dibromo-3-chIoropropane (DBCP), a nematocide used on banana and pineapple plantations in the Ivory Coast, and damages, caused by Dow and Shell, both Delaware corporations, as well as two California corporations, Amvae Chemical Corporation, and Standard Fruit Company, a Dole entity. 1 As a diversity action may be removed only when there is no in-state defendant under 28 U.S.C. § 1441 (b) — commonly called the “forum defendant rule” — Dow asserted in its Notice of Removal that the California parties were fraudulently joined. Within a few days of removal, the district court sua sponte found no fraudulent joinder, and remanded the case to state court.

Dow has timely appealed, arguing that the district court exceeded its authority in acting sua sponte to remand for an alleged procedural defect in the Notice of Removal. Our precedent compels us to agree. Following Quackenbush v. Allstate Ins. Co., 517 U.S. 706 , 116 S.Ct. 1712 , 135 L.Ed.2d 1…