GranCare v. Thrower

On appeal, GranCare argued that the district court applied an improper standard for fraudulent joinder and that removal was objectively reasonable. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's order, holding that the fraudulent joinder standard shared some similarities with the analysis under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), but the tests for fraudulent joinder and failure to state a claim were not equivalent; if a plaintiff's complaint could withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) motion with respect to a particular defendant, that defendant had not been fraudulently joined; but the reverse was not true, and if a defendant could not withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the fraudulent joinder inquiry did not end there. In this case, Thrower's heirs had shown a colorable claim against state and common law. The panel also held that GranCare's reliance on a district court's order in Johnson v. GranCare LLC, No. 15-CV-03585-RS, 2015 WL 6865876 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 9, 2015), was unreasonable due to clear factual distinctions between the cases. Finally, the award of costs and attorneys' fees was not premised on an erroneous view of the law or a clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence. View "GranCare v. Thrower" on Justia Law