Court Allows Amendment of Non-Diverse Defendants, Remands Case

BEAUMONT, Texas -- A Texas federal court has reconsidered a plaintiff's motion to amend her benzene lawsuit and granted the motion after finding that carrying out parallel actions in both federal and state court would prejudice the plaintiff. Strother, et al. v. Goodrich Corp., et al., No. 07-242 (E.D. Texas).

On Nov. 8, Judge Thad Heartfield of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that the plaintiff would be permitted to add non-diverse defendants to the pleadings and further determined that adding the defendants would destroy the subject matter jurisdiction the court had over the complaint.