Vaillancourt v. PNC Bank, N.A.

Plaintiff filed suit against PNC, alleging federal and state claims related to PNC's sale of her property at foreclose. PNC moved to dismiss the complaint in its entirety. The district court granted PNC's motion with respect to the federal claims; concluded that the Substitute Trustees were properly joined and thus there was not complete diversity as to the state law claims; and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims and remanded to state court. The court concluded that PNC satisfied its burden of proving improper joinder of the Substitute Trustees and Mr. Vaillancourt, the remaining parties to the suit are diverse. Therefore, the district court had diversity jurisdiction over the state law claims at the time of remand and the exercise of that jurisdiction is mandatory. Consequently, the district court erred its decision to remand. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Vaillancourt v. PNC Bank, N.A." on Justia Law