Hicks v. New Millennium Building Systems, LLC

Background

Aaron Hicks, a commercial truck driver, was unloading a trailer of steel joists when three joists fell and crushed him. He alleged serious injuries, including permanent paraplegia, spinal fractures and dislocations, cord compression, rib fractures, and chronic pain. Hicks sued New Millennium Building Systems, LLC, in Hennepin County District Court, asserting common-law negligence claims. The operative amended complaint also named RJ Ryan Construction, Inc., and Linco Fab, Inc.; it dropped Steel Dynamics, Inc., as a defendant.

New Millennium removed the case to federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over civil cases arising under federal law. The defendants argued that Hicks’s negligence theories implicated the Federal Motor Carrier Act and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Hicks moved to remand, asking the federal court to return the case to state court.

Jurisdiction analysis

The court applied the well-pleaded-complaint rule, under which federal-question jurisdiction generally must appear on the face of the plaintiff’s properly pleaded complaint. The removing party bears the burden of showing federal jurisdiction, and doubts are resolved in favor of remand.

The court held that Hicks’s claims did not necessarily raise a federal issue. His complaints did not identify the Federal Motor Carrier Act or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Although they referred once to “applicable federal” law, they also referred to state and local law and listed many nonfederal theories for establishing negligence. Those theories could support Hicks’s claims without requiring a decision about federal law.

The court also held that the potential federal issues were not substantial in the required sense. The case presented potential fact questions about whether the defendants violated federal statutes or regulations, not a pure federal legal question that would control the case or numerous other cases. Exercising federal jurisdiction would also risk moving ordinary state tort cases into federal court and disrupting the intended division of responsibility between state and federal courts.

The court rejected New Millennium’s argument that Hicks used “artful pleading” to disguise federal claims. It explained that this doctrine permits removal when federal law completely preempts a state claim, but New Millennium identified no case holding that the Federal Motor Carrier Act or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations completely preempt state personal-injury tort claims. The court also rejected the argument that federal law might provide a defense concerning duties for securing cargo. A federal defense, even one anticipated in the complaint, does not create federal-question jurisdiction.

Ruling

Judge Eric C. Tostrud granted Hicks’s Motion to Remand. The court ordered that the case be remanded to Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, in Hennepin County, under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c). The order addressed the federal court’s jurisdiction and did not decide the underlying negligence claims.