The Sixth Circuit today denied defendants’ petitions for leave to appeal remand orders under CAFA in seven separate Darvon cases. Plaintiffs had filed these cases in California and had named a drug distributor based in California as one of the defendants to prevent removal based on diversity. Defendants nevertheless removed these cases to federal court, asserting among other things that the cases were subject to federal jurisdiction under the mass action provision of the Class Action Fairness Act. Defendants moved to transfer the cases to the Darvon MDL and the JPML decided that the remand issue could properly be resolved by that court after transfer (even though, if federal jurisdiction were based solely on CAFA, transfer would be prohibited). The MDL judge then granted remand, rejecting defendants’ three separate arguments for federal jurisdiction.

Defendants sought leave to appeal to the Sixth Circuit. Although remand orders are not generally appealable, a provision in CAFA authorizes petitions for expedited appeal of remand orders rejecting federal jurisdiction under that act. CCL Senior Counsel Lou Bograd was retained to oppose the petitions. Today, a motions panel of the court entered an order denying leave to appeal in all seven cases, which will now all be remanded to California state court.