CHICAGO - Retired Scott Air Force base radio operator Linda Thompson, who proposed in 2022 to lead a national class action in St. Clair County circuit court against Exchange stores on Army and Air Force bases, can start litigating in 2025.
U.S. Seventh Circuit appellate judges ruled on Jan. 8 that U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle should have remanded the case to St. Clair County instead of dismissing it.
Thompson claims store operator Army and Air Force Exchange Service violated federal law on credit transactions.
Circuit Judge Michael Scudder called it “the rare case where the parties agree that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s claim.”
He and colleagues Amy St. Eve and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi struggled with it for 18 months and devoted a quarter of the text to cautious footnotes.
Scudder wrote in one that, “In deciding this case we do not resolve whether a federal agency can always remove without asserting a federal defense.”
In another he wrote, “We take no position on whether a district court may dismiss, rather than remand, when federal law would render remand futile.”
Roy Dripps of Maryville filed Thompson’s suit in October 2022 in association with Keogh Law of Chicago and Scott Owens of Florida.
They claimed the Exchange at Scott printed her credit card’s expiration date on receipts in violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.
They claimed it would have been a simple matter for the Exchange to program its system to print receipts that didn’t display expiration dates.
They claimed Thompson used her credit card at the Exchange twice that year.
They claimed she could lead a class of all individuals who engaged in a transaction using a debit or credit card in the United States or territories.
They proposed a class period from two years before the complaint to class certification.
“Thompson believes there are at least tens of thousands of persons in the class," Dripps wrote.
Exchange counsel Taylor Pitz of the justice department in Washington removed the complaint to district court in December 2022, classifying the Exchange as a federal agency.
He moved to dismiss, claiming Thompson lacked standing in federal court because she didn’t allege a sufficiently concrete injury.
Dripps moved to remand for the same reason and claimed the Exchange didn’t assert a colorable federal defense.
Yandle denied remand in January 2023, finding the Exchange as a federal agency could remove without asserting a colorable federal defense.
She found the federal removal law vested government agencies with an absolute right to litigate in federal court.
In the same order she granted the motion to dismiss, finding Thompson lacked standing.
Thompson moved to alter judgment and Yandle denied it in June 2023.
On appeal she revived the case.
Scudder found the federal defense requirement applies to federal officers and the parties disputed whether it applies to federal agencies as well.
“We need not resolve the issue today,” he wrote.
He found Thompson sued under federal law that conferred federal jurisdiction.
He found courts faced with these circumstances must remand a case to state court.
He found the law provides concurrent jurisdiction to state and federal courts, “so plaintiffs face no statutory barrier to suing in state court.”