Murphy Brothers, Inc. v. Michetti Pipe Stringing, Inc. (526 U.S. 344)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 5, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 526 U.S. 344 · 119 S. Ct. 1322
- Decided
- April 5, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1998
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This ease concerns the time within which a defendant named in a state-court action may remove the action to a federal court. The governing provision is 28 U. S. C. § 1446(b), which specifies, in relevant part, that the removal notice “shall be filed within thirty days after the receipt by the defendant, through service or otherwise, of a copy of the [complaint].” The question presented is whether the named defendant must be officially summoned to appear in the action before the time to remove begins to run. Or, may the 30-day period start earlier, on the named defendant’s receipt, before service of official process, of a “courtesy copy” of the filed complaint faxed by counsel for the plaintiff? removal in light of a bedrock principle: An individual or entity named as a defendant is not obliged to engage in litigation unless notified of the action, and brought under a court’s authority, by formal process. Accordingly, we hold that a named defendant’s time to remove is triggered by simultaneous service of the summons and complaint, or receipt of the complaint, “through service or otherwise,” after and apart from service of the summons, but not by mere receipt of the complaint unattended by any formal service. I On January 26, 1996, respondent Michetti Pipe Stringing, Inc. (Michetti), filed a complaint in Alabama state court…
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