separable controversy
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 341 U.S. 6 - American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn · 1951Most cited · 3,597 citing opinions
any possible separate suit that a litigant might properly bring in a federal court so long as it was wholly between citizens of different states; 'separate cause of action' restricts removal more than 'separable controversy' — in a suit covering multiple parties or issues based on a single claim, there may be only one cause of action and yet be separable controversies
How the Supreme Court has restated “separable controversy”
Each Supreme Court definition of “separable controversy,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “separable controversy”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “separable controversy” — 5,055 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1926–1951
- ORIGINAL
an action brought in a State court against two defendants jointly, in which the plaintiff states a case of joint liability arising out of the concurrent negligence of the defendants, does not present a separable controversy authorizing the removal of the cause to a Federal court, even though the plaintiff might have sued the defendants separately; the allegations of the complaint being decisive as to the nature of the controversy in the absence of a showing that one of the defendants was fraudulently joined for the purpose of preventing the removal
a controversy 'which is wholly between citizens of different States, and which can be fully determined as between them'; where concurrent acts of negligence on the part of defendants sued as joint tort-feasors are sufficiently alleged, a separable controversy is not presented, but if the charge against the non-resident defendant is based on different and non-concurrent acts of negligence and a cause of action which is joint in character is not alleged, a separable controversy is presented