Opinion
Case No. 14 C 6618
08-28-2014
KENYATTA HILL COTTON, as the Administrator of the Estate of Mr. Ricky Rozelle, deceased, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, a municipal corporation, et al., Defendants.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
This Court has just had added to its calendar the captioned action, removed to this District Court from its place of origin in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Although this Court is contemporaneously issuing its customary initial scheduling order that in part sets a first status hearing date, the Notice of Removal ("Notice") and its attached Ex. A (a photocopy of the First Amended Complaint at Law ("FAC") filed in the Circuit Court) raise a question that needs answering.
Although the inclusion of the FAC as the only attachment to the Notice may comply with the 28 U.S.C. § 1446(a) directive that speaks of including "a copy of all process, pleadings, and orders served upon such defendant or defendants in such action" (emphasis added), the omission of the original Complaint leaves this Court in the dark as to such matters as (1) when it was filed, (2) whether it too involved any federal question (Count V of the FAC seeks to invoke 42 U.S.C. § 1983) and (3) whether and when (a) either the City of Chicago or its codefendant Chicago Police Officer John Poulos received a copy of the original Complaint "through service or otherwise" or (b) either of them received a copy of the FAC other than through service (Section 1446(b)). Counsel for defendants are ordered to provide that missing information on or before September 15, 2014. This Court can then determine whether, as it has presently assumed from the assertions in the Notice, the removal to this District Court was timely.
Any further reference to Title 28's provisions will simply take the form "Section --," omitting the prefatory "28 U.S.C. §."
Notice ¶ 2 states that the FAC was served on the City of Chicago on August 18, 2014. It is silent as to whether the original Complaint had been served on, or as to whether the original Complaint or the FAC had been otherwise received by (see Section 1446(b)), the City.
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/s/_________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: August 28, 2014