Inconsistencies Prove Defendants Fraudulently Joined, Opposition to Remand States

NEW ORLEANS -- Defendants in a Louisiana welding rod lawsuit argue in opposition to remand that the plaintiff's own allegations prove that non-diverse supplier defendants were fraudulently joined. Motty v. A.O. Smith Corp., et al., No. 04-1562 (E.D. La.).

In the opposition filed July 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the defendants claims that allegations of conspiracy among the welding defendants proves that claims asserted against supplier defendants can't succeed.

'Thus, accepting plaintiff's own allegation that 'the Welding Defendants...created and controlled committees within [their] trade organizations to fraudulently and negligently misrepresent, conceal, suppress, and …