Noble v. Bradford Marine, Inc. 789 F. Supp. 395 (S.D. Fla. 1992)
Two plaintiffs (Noble and Muir) filed separate claims against Bradford (who owned a dock) due to a boat fire. Later, they amended their complaints and added a second defendant (Prime Time Charters, whose boat caused the fire). Prime Time tried to remove the case into Federal Court based on federal question jurisdiction, but more than 30 days of the initiation of the original lawsuits. o There is a 30 day limit from the time the complaint is filed for the defendant to ask for the case to be removed to a Federal Court. o Prime Time claimed that since they were added later to the lawsuit, the 30 day limit that applied to Bradford should not apply to him. o For some reason, Courts use the term 'remove' instead of transferred or moved or relocated. The Federal Appellate Court ruled that the 30 day limit still applied, so it was too late for the case to be removed into a Federal Court. o Bradford could have removed the case to the Federal Court (under admiralty jurisdiction since it involved boats) but he didn't. The Court ruled that when Prime Time was added, no new federal jurisdiction was created. Therefore, the original 30 day limit applied to both defendants. However, if federal jurisdiction was created only after the addition of the new defendant, then a new 30 day limit would start.
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