EAST ST. LOUIS - In 12 days defendants removed eight civil suits from St. Clair County circuit court to U.S. district court.
The streak ran from May 13 to May 24 and boosted St. Clair’s removals for the year to 27, two more than the number of removals from all the other 37 counties of the Southern Illinois district.
U.S. Attorney Rachelle Crowe removed a crash suit against the Postal Service and a malpractice suit against a government clinic.
East Side Health District and appliance maker Blend Jet removed potential class actions.
Trucking companies TTS Logistics and Marathon Transport removed crash suits.
Solvay Fluoride of Cahokia Heights removed a discrimination and retaliation suit.
Walmart removed a slip and fall suit.
Federal law allows a defendant in state court to remove a suit if the defendant is a citizen of another state and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.
The law allows removal if a plaintiff raises a question of federal law and requires removal of suits against the U.a2S.
Robert Fisher and Kiley Grombacher of New York City posted an essay on removal in 2020 stating many plaintiff attorneys preferred state court.
They stated defense counsel would often do everything they could to remove cases.
They stated a presumption against removal exists because of federalism concerns, and a defendant always has the burden of establishing that removal is proper.
They advised plaintiff counsel to be vigilant from crafting a pleading up to trial.
They stated counsel should not outright plead a federal case and hope to remain in state court but subtle pleadings and litigation tactics can keep a case in state court or bring it back.
St. Clair’s streak began with Walmart counsel Brittany Warren removing a slip and fall suit that Jeffrey Kopis of Fairview Heights filed for local resident Victoria Morgan.
Blend Jet counsel Alexander Pabon of Chicago removed a class action complaint that David Nelson of Belleville filed for local resident Tommy Gould.
Nelson claimed Gould bought a Blend Jet 2 model at Target in Fairview Heights and inferior materials made it unsafe.
He claimed Gould discarded it as useless.
He proposed a national class action with an Illinois subclass, both for five years of sales.
Assistant U.S. attorney David Pfeffer removed a suit that Beverly Spearman of Homewood filed for local resident Stephanie Marable.
Spearman claimed doctors at Southern Illinois Health Care on South 3rd Street in Belleville failed to diagnose breast cancer.
Pfeffer’s removal notice stated the doctors were deemed employees of the U.S.
TTS Logistics counsel Ted Perryman of St. Louis County removed a crash suit that Randall Steele of Glen Carbon filed for Ruth Galle of Madison County.
Perryman asserted diversity jurisdiction for TTS as a Texas citizen and for a driver from Pennsylvania as second defendant.
Perryman next removed a suit the state transportation department filed against Marathon Transport and its driver as citizens of Pennsylvania and Texas.
Assistant attorney general Deborah Sterling-Scott claimed the truck wrecked a guardrail and damaged a concrete bridge support.
She claimed repairs and replacements cost $112,060.60.
East Side Health Clinic counsel Adama Wiltshire of Atlanta removed a class action complaint that Gary Klinger of Chicago filed for an anonymous patient.
Klinger claimed the clinic failed to protect patients from a cyber attack that caused a data breach from Dec. 1 to Dec. 8.
He sought damages for a national class in tens of thousands and an Illinois class.
Wiltshire attached to the removal notice an April 22 order of St. Clair County chief judge Andrew Gleeson assigning the suit to Circuit Judge Kevin Hoerner.
Solvay Fluoride counsel Jason Winslow of St. Louis removed a suit that Brian Wendler of Maryville filed for Tyler Parrent of Caseyville.
Wendler claimed Parrent worked a year as technical services specialist and reported unsafe conditions of company trucks.
He claimed retaliation followed and discrimination extended to disability and religion.
“Plaintiff refused to participate in defendant’s illegal activities.”
Winslow’s removal notice asserted diversity jurisdiction for Solvay as a New Jersey citizen.
He attached a docket entry showing Gleeson assigned Circuit Judge Christopher Kolker.
Assistant U.S. attorney Adam Hanna removed a suit that Steven Fluhr of St. Louis County filed against the Postal Service and driver Joseph Rendleman.
Fluhr claimed Rendleman caused an accident that injured local residents Evelyn Reynolds, Jovie Brown and Shaneka Hollmon.
While St. Clair County saw 27 removals as of May 24, Madison County saw 10.
Four removals occurred in Effingham County, two each in Franklin and Clark counties, and one each in Clinton, Fayette, Marion, Jefferson, Williamson, Saline and Cumberland.