Wilson v. Republic Iron & Steel Co.

Background

An Alabama worker sued his New Jersey employer and a fellow Alabama employee for injuries that happened in Alabama. The employer filed a verified petition to move the case to federal court, saying the parties were citizens of different States, the amount in dispute exceeded three thousand dollars, and the Alabama co-worker was added only to prevent removal. The record also showed the worker had earlier sued the employer alone in federal court and voluntarily dismissed that case before starting the suit in state court with the co-worker joined.

Reasoning

The narrow question was whether the federal court could keep the case or had to send it back to state court. The Court explained that a verified removal petition’s factual statements must be accepted as true unless the plaintiff contests them. Here the worker filed a motion to remand but did not dispute the petition’s factual claims. Because those facts, taken as true, showed the co-worker had been joined without any real basis and only to defeat removal, the co-worker was a sham defendant and did not block removal. The Supreme Court therefore agreed the federal court properly retained the case and could decide it on the merits.

Real world impact

This ruling makes clear that out-of-state employers can move some workplace-injury suits to federal court when a local co-defendant is transparently added to block removal, and that plaintiffs who do not contest verified removal petitions are treated as admitting their factual statements. The opinion reviewed only the jurisdictional question and did not decide other matters in the case.