Jones v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc.

Background

Jeanne Jones brought a personal-injury action against CVS Pharmacy, Inc. and CVS Albany, LLC in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester. Her complaint alleged that she was injured when she fell in defendants’ store. Because New York law does not permit a personal-injury complaint to state a specific damages amount, the complaint said only that her damages exceeded the jurisdictional limit of lower courts.

On February 17, 2023, the defendants filed a notice removing the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They asserted that complete diversity existed between the parties and that, on information and belief, the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000, excluding interest and costs.

Analysis

Federal diversity jurisdiction generally requires both citizenship in different states and an amount in controversy exceeding $75,000. When a complaint does not state a specific amount because state practice forbids it, the removing defendants must establish by a preponderance of the evidence—that it is more likely than not—that the amount exceeds $75,000.

Judge Halpern concluded that the defendants did not meet that burden. Their notice of removal contained only the unsupported statement that the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000. Neither the complaint, the notice of removal, nor the state-court docket provided enough information about the nature and extent of Jones’s injuries for the court to reasonably determine that the jurisdictional threshold was satisfied.

Disposition

The court concluded that removal was improper and remanded the action to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester. The Clerk was directed to send the order to that court and close the federal action. All pending matters were terminated. The opinion did not decide the merits of Jones’s personal-injury claims.