Ninth Circuit Holds that CAFA Commencement Occurs When Case is Filed in State Court, Not When it is Removed

On October 6, 2005, in Bush v. Cheaptickets, Inc., the Ninth Circuit joined the Seventh and Tenth Circuits (see Knudsen v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 411 F.3d 805 (7th Cir. 2005); Pritchett v. Office Depot, 404 F.3d 1090 (10th Cir. 2005)) in holding that CAFA commencement occurs when a suit is initially filed in state court.  In this case, plaintiffs filed their claim against Cheaptickets, on February 17, 2005, one day before CAFA became effective.  Defendants removed the case to federal court, asserting jurisdiction under CAFA, but the district court remanded the case to state court, holding that removal was improper because the case was filed before CAFA was effective.  Cheaptickets argued that the CAFA commencement date should be the date the case was removed to federal court or, alternatively, the date process was served on defendants.  The Ninth Circuit rejected both arguments, and further held that defendants' concerns about procedural problems in cases in which there is a long delay between filing and service of process were "largely hypothetical" and would soon phase out.  See also CAFAblog's comments here.  - L.C.