Novak v. Bank of New York Mellon, No. 13-2543 (1st Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseInvoking diversity jurisdiction, Defendant removed this action from state court to federal court. At the time of removal, Plaintiff had not yet formally served Defendant. The district denied Plaintiff’s motion to remand and dismissed the action for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff asserted that removal was not permissible because Defendant had not been served at the time it sought to remove. The First Circuit affirmed after construing the relevant statute, 28 U.S.C. 1446(b)(1), holding that service is generally not a prerequisite for removal, and a defendant may remove a state-court action to federal court any time after the lawsuit is filed but before the statutorily-defined period for removal ends.
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