MBE Tip of the Day: Civil Procedure

Answer to the Civil Procedure MBE Question

Subject: Civil Procedure

Legal Issue: Federal Subject Matter Jurisdiction and Removal

Legal Rule and Analysis: In order for a case to be removable to federal court, the plaintiff(s) must have been able to originally file the case in federal court.  This means that the federal court must have subject matter jurisdiction over the claim.  Subject matter jurisdiction comes in four forms: diversity, federal question, supplemental, and statutory. Diversity jurisdiction requires that each plaintiff be diverse from every defendant, and that the amount in controversy be greater than $75,000.  Federal question jurisdiction requires the claim to arise under federal law. Supplemental jurisdiction requires another claim with subject matter jurisdiction that the claim in question could tie to.  The statutory option refers to various federal statutes that give the federal courts jurisdiction over certain types of cases.

In this case, supplemental and statutory jurisdiction would not be options as there is no additional claim that this case could attach to, and negligence is not an area that federal statutes have required federal courts to hear.  The requirements for diversity are also not met.  Complete diversity is present since both plaintiffs are domiciled in State B whereas the defendant is domiciled in State A. However, the amount in controversy requirement is not met.  Individual plaintiffs can combine their claims to meet the threshold, but multiple plaintiffs cannot (unless they are seeking to enforce a single title or right in which they have a common or undivided interest, which is not the case here).  Thus, since each plaintiff only has an amount in controversy of $40,000 and their claims cannot be aggregated, diversity jurisdiction will fail.  Finally, federal question jurisdiction is also not present.  The federal question must be raised in a well-plead complaint.  While in this case, the defendant plans to raise a federal law defense, bringing elements of federal law into the claim, there is no federal question presented in the complaint, which is merely for negligence.

Conclusion: Since none of the forms of federal subject matter jurisdiction are met, the federal court must remand the case back to state court.

Look at the answer choices provided. Choose an answer choice that matches your conclusion. Review the other answer choices provided. 

The answer choice (C) is therefore correct. (A) is incorrect because the amount in controversy requirement for diversity jurisdiction is not met. (B) is incorrect because no federal question arises in a well-plead complaint.  (D) is incorrect because it is an incorrect statement of law.  A defendant must file a notice of removal within 30 days of when the defendant receives a paper from which he should realize the case is removable.  The bus driver in this case filed his notice of removal in time, so this would not be a reason to remand the case.

MBE Tip: Understand how the rules interact and overlap!  Rarely will you see a question that allows you to focus on one specific topic and apply one rule in a vacuum.  Bar exam questions like to take rules from various topics and weave them together, requiring you to understand multiple concepts in order to answer the question correctly.  In this question, it wasn’t enough just to know the basics of removal.  You also had to know the rules involved with subject matter jurisdiction to be able to reach the correct answer.  Practicing MBE questions will allow you to see how the examiners combine topics and how knowing certain rules from specific concepts will allow you to be able to correctly answer a question on a different topic.