Ninth Circuit Strictly Construes "Single Local Event" Exception To CAFA Jurisdiction For Mass Actions

In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals strictly construed the "single local event" exception to federal jurisdiction under CAFA as not encompassing "events or occurrences" that are of a continuing nature.

Plaintiffs are Washington residents who filed a complaint in state court alleging that Boeing contaminated their groundwater and, together with its environmental remediation contractor, Landau, did not properly investigate, remediate, and clean up the contamination, or warn plaintiffs of the contamination. Boeing removed the action to federal court, asserting that federal jurisdiction existed under CAFA because the case qualified as a "mass action" in which "monetary relief claims of 100 or more persons are proposed to be tried jointly on the ground that the plaintiffs' claims involve common questions of law or fact . . ."