Virgin Islands Federal Court Remands Toxic Exposure Lawsuit after Finding Defendant Properly Joined

ST. CROIX, Virgin Islands –– A federal court in the U.S. Virgin Islands has remanded a toxic exposure lawsuit filed by a former employee of an oil refinery, concluding that one of the defendants in question was not fraudulently joined to the matter.

In the March 31 order, the U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands concluded that the removing defendant had “failed to carry its heavy burden” of establishing fraudulent joinder.

Plaintiff Gregory A. Mathurin filed the underlying lawsuit in Dec. 2020 in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands against a number of defendants, including Glencore, a Swiss …