Rashad Blossom recently represented a client whose case was so dynamic that it made its way all the way to the Supreme Court. The ultimate result was the Supreme Court ruled that it should be more difficult for third-party defendants to have cases removed from state courts and moved to federal courts.
The case saw Rashad Blossom represent a North Carolina consumer named Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter filed a class action lawsuit against The Home Depot and Carolina Water Systems in the state court. Rashad Blossom assisted Mr. Carter after Home Depot decided to attempt to remove the lawsuit from the state court level to the federal court. This was done in an effort to boost their success rate in the case. Rashad Blossom was able to lay out the facts in a way that the Federal Court moved the case back to North Carolina state court. The Supreme Court took on the case when Home Depot appealed the federal court’s decision. The goal of Home Depot was to get the Federal Court to rule that any defendant could move the court that would hear the case.
When the ruling came out, Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority 5-4 decision on May 28, 2019, affirmed the federal court’s decision. This meant that the lower federal courts were correct in bouncing the case back to the state level. The Supreme Court referenced the plain meaning of the applicable statutes, which do not expressly provide for removal by third-party defendants.
Home Depot was the third-party defendant in the case. This was the case because Mr. Jackson was originally sued by Citibank in state court to collect the debt, which he incurred upon the purchase of his home water filtration system from Carolina Water Systems and Home Depot. Mr. Jackson believed he was the victim of a fraudulent referral scheme, which led him to buy a faulty $9,000 filtration system in the first instance.
In most cases, class actions are initiated by plaintiffs. It’s rare for someone like Mr. Jackson who was the initial defendant in this case and who then became a third-party plaintiff upon suing Home Depot and Carolina Water Systems, to be the one to file a class action lawsuit.
Rashad Blossom is glad that the decision shed light on a common misconception. Blossom believes there’s a misconception that state courts are plaintiff friendly when there really isn’t a bias either way, especially in the state of North Carolina. The Supreme Court’s ruling shows that they believe that anyone can get a fair trial at the state level.
It sounds counterintuitive but all those strings that had been tying you to overwhelming financial obligations aren’t suddenly snipped upon declaring bankruptcy. While it’s true that you’ll have more room to work with, there can still be issues of impending taxes and even foreclosure if you’ve fallen behind on mortgage payments after you’ve filed bankruptcy. According to Rashad Blossom of North Carolina’s Blossom Law, the narrow path those in financial trouble must navigate often calls for a professional guide. Mr. Blossom’s hands-on approach to handling consumer protection and bankruptcy law cases has provided him with plenty of insight into tax and foreclosure issues.