Xiao v. Forshey
- Maxine Chesney
- 3:21-cv-05866
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Xiao v. Forshey, Judge Chesney remanded the unlawful-detainer action to state court again because the notice identified no federal jurisdiction.
The action filed by Xiaoqing Xiao against Randall Forshey and Sharon Forshey returns to the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Alameda; the federal court did not decide the underlying claim.
What happened
Xiao v. Forshey involved Xiaoqing Xiao’s single unlawful-detainer claim against Randall Forshey and Sharon Forshey. The defendants again tried to move the case from state court to federal court.
The court had already sent the case back to state court after an earlier removal because it lacked federal jurisdiction. The defendants’ new removal notice was identical to the earlier one and still did not identify a basis for federal jurisdiction.
Judge Maxine Chesney ordered the action remanded again to the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Alameda. The order did not decide the unlawful-detainer claim itself.
The detailed version
- Xiao v. Forshey · No. 3:21-cv-05866
- Maxine Chesney
- Aug. 11, 2021
Background
Xiaoqing Xiao asserted a single claim for unlawful detainer against Randall Forshey and Sharon Forshey. The defendants filed a notice seeking to remove the action from state court to federal court on July 30, 2021.
The court noted that the same action had previously been removed on April 7, 2021. In an order filed June 8, 2021, the court remanded that earlier proceeding because it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, meaning the federal court lacked authority to hear the case.
Court’s Reasoning
The July 30 notice of removal was identical to the April 7 notice. Because the grounds in the first notice did not identify any basis for federal jurisdiction, the court concluded that the identical grounds in the second notice also failed to establish federal jurisdiction. The court cited 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c), which requires remand when a federal court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction before final judgment.
Ruling
Judge Maxine Chesney ordered that the action be REMANDED to the Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Alameda. The order addressed the federal court’s jurisdiction and did not resolve the underlying unlawful-detainer claim.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.