John Ewalt v. Gatehouse Media Ohio Holdings

Summary

The Sixth Circuit held that GateHouse Media's February 2025 re-removal of a CAFA class action was untimely because the plaintiffs' 2019 complaint, which contained solid and unambiguous information of removability, had already triggered the 30-day removal clock under 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b)(1), and a later state-court motion for class certification did not reset it. Although the panel agreed that the district court's May 2024 sua sponte remand was improper — denial of class certification does not divest a federal court of CAFA jurisdiction — it held that the 30-day deadline cannot be equitably tolled, following the Supreme Court's recent Enbridge Energy decision. The court therefore reversed with instructions to remand to state court, and declined to consider GateHouse's Rule 60(b) argument, which was forfeited by being raised only in a footnote of its appellate brief and developed for the first time in its petition for panel rehearing.