N.C. attorneys score big win with U.S. Supreme Court.

Byline: Bill Cresenzo

A narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a major win for consumers who file class action lawsuits, making it more difficult for defendants to have their cases removed from state courts to federal courts.

Now, in a way, it's back to square one for Rashad Blossom of Blossom Law in Charlotte and Dan Bryson and Hunter Bryson of Whitfield Bryson and Mason in Raleigh and Washington, D.C., respectively, who are representing plaintiffs who say that Home Depot engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices when it sold them water filtration systems they did not need.

George Jackson of Mecklenburg County purchased a water filtration produced Carolina Water Systems, which partnered with Home Depot to sell the systems. In turn, Home Depot partnered with Citibank to provide the credit to buy them.

When Jackson fell behind in payments, Citibank filed a lawsuit against him to collect. Jackson filed a counterclaim against Home Depot based on the way in which he was allegedly pressured into buying the $9,000 system. Citibank ultimately dropped its case against Jackson.

Home Depot attempted to remove the case to federal court, a request that a U.S. District Court denied. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision last year.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Home Depot's argument that federal law allows "any" defendants to ask that cases be removed under the Class Action Fairness Act. Jackson's attorneys argued that since Jackson is the original defendant in the case, Home Depot didn't have any grounds for the case to be removed to federal court.

On May 28, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in Jackson's favor, ruling that the "any defendant" clause applied to multiple defendants in lawsuits, not to third-party counterclaim defendant, and a third-party counterclaimant doesn't have the right to have a case removed to federal court.

Blossom said the January arguments before the Supreme Court lasted more than hour and that...