Federal Court Declines Jurisdiction Based on Plaintiffs' Clerical Error

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana federal judge has declined to exercise jurisdiction over a family's wrongful death asbestos lawsuit, saying that defendants cannot invoke diversity jurisdiction based on plaintiffs' error in pleading jurisdictional facts. Sommers, et al. v. Air Liquide - Big Three Inc., et al., No. 07-577 (E.D. La.).

In a March 19 order remanding the case to state court, Judge Lance M. Africk of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana said that the defendants did not challenge plaintiffs' amended pleadings but merely asserted that removal was proper given the statement of domicile in plaintiffs' …