D. (§4.37) Unanimity Among Defendants

• Library: Federal Civil Litigation in Oregon (OSBar) (2009 Ed.)

D. (§4.37) Unanimity Among Defendants

Generally, if there is more than one defendant, all defendants who may properly join in the removal must join. Hewitt v. Stanton, 798 F2d 1230, 1232 (9th Cir 1986). If all defendants who may properly join in the removal fail to do so, the removal is generally rendered procedurally defective, resulting in remand and possible sanctions. See Hewitt, 798 F2d at 1232-1233 (imposing sanctions for attempting to remove without joining defendant who was not "nominal" party).

The Ninth Circuit recognizes a number of exceptions to the judicially created rule of unanimity. See, e.g., United Computer Sys. v. AT&T Info. Sys., Inc., 298 F3d 756, 762 (9th Cir 2002). Some of the most commonly recognized exceptions are summarized as follows:

(1) The "unanimity rule" does not apply to...