Opinion
Case No. 1:06-CV-02830.
March 13, 2007
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
In its January 18, 2007 memorandum and order [Docket No. 13], the court denied plaintiff D.A. International Casting Company, Inc.'s ("DAI") motion to remand this case to the Richland County Court of Common Pleas [Docket No. 5] without prejudice, finding that the evidence provided by defendants John Whitaker ("Whitaker"), Andrea Whitaker, and Whitaker and Company (collectively, the "Whitakers") made it more likely than not that the total amount in controversy in this matter exceeded $75,000, giving this court subject matter jurisdiction to sustain removal. However, the court gave DAI an opportunity to re-file its motion for remand, no later than February 16, 2007, if it could be established that the injunction sought in Count 1 of its complaint was worth less than $40,904.73 as a legal certainty.
DAI did not file the instant motion to remand [Docket No. 14] until February 22, 2007. It has offered no explanation as to why it failed to meet the deadline set forth in the court's January 18 memorandum and order. More to the point, it has not offered any evidence to counter the evidence produced by the Whitakers on the value of the injunction sought. DAI attempts to argue that because the allegedly misappropriated trade secrets have caused no damage to it, that concludes the inquiry into the injunction's value. DAI is mistaken, for the reasons stated in the court's January 18 memorandum and order. The value of the injunction may be determined either by reference to the damage caused or to the value of the object at issue; defeating diversity jurisdiction requires a finding that both the damage caused and the value of the object at issue are less than the jurisdictional limit. That no damage has been caused does not end the inquiry; if it did, if the court accepted DAI's proposed interpretation, it would allow a devious plaintiff to steal valuable trade secrets, such as the recipe for Coca-Cola, and conceal them without using them, to avoid jurisdiction even though all other prerequisites for diversity jurisdiction have been met.
Because DAI appears unwilling or unable to provide evidence rebutting the Whitakers' evidence that the injunction is worth more than $40,904.73, the court denies the motion to remand [Docket No. 14]. The case management conference currently set in this matter for Friday, March 16, 2007, at 11:00 a.m. shall proceed as scheduled.
IT IS SO ORDERED.