In a ruling dated June 20, 2019, Judge Ivan Lemelle of the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled that a lawsuit removed to federal court by the original defendants must be remanded back to state court after an amendment by the plaintiff that destroyed diversity. It is uncontroverted that the accident involved three vehicles: the plaintiff’s, the original defendant’s, and a third driver added as a defendant by the plaintiff after the case was removed to federal court.

The magistrate judge assigned to the case had previously granted the plaintiff leave to amend the complaint to add the third driver. Both the magistrate and the district judge relied on the fact that the original defendants asserted third party fault as an affirmative defense. Federal courts will often refuse to allow amendments if the purpose is only to destroy diversity. However, in this case, the plaintiff had another good reason to add the third driver as a defendant: the possibility of some portion of fault being attributed to the third driver. The case is Sylve v. Charles Lambert Et. Al., Civil Action No. 18-4581 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.