On June 5, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit decided in favor of Fifth Third Bank on its appeal of a district court order remanding a putative class action to Florida state court. The basis for the remand order had been the district court’s determination that certain of the claims asserted in the removed complaint were legally insufficient and thus the damages claimed thereunder did not satisfy the $5,000,000 amount-in-controversy requirement imposed under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), Pub. L. No. 109–2119, Stat. 4.
On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit reversed and agreed with Fifth Third Bank that the claims at issue satisfied the threshold amount, holding that when determining subject matter jurisdiction, the issue is not the plaintiff’s probable success on the merits, but rather, whether the plaintiff has placed an amount into controversy in good faith. A Carlton Fields Jorden Burt team consisting of Sylvia H. Walbolt, Cristina Alonso, Alan M. Grunspan, and Aaron S. Weiss represented Fifth Third Bank on appeal.
McDaniel v. Fifth Third Bank, No. 14-11615, --- F. App’x ----, 2014 WL 2525192 (11th Cir. June 5, 2014).
