Pyrrhic Victory for Limitation Vessel Owner

Arnone v. Knab, 2023 WL 4991927; 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135900 *, (W.D. N.Y., Aug. 4, 2023).

            Susan Arnone was injured as a passenger in a vessel owned and operated by David Knab on Lake Erie in September, 2020.[1] She filed suit in state court; but the defendant removed the case on the basis of “admiralty jurisdiction.”[2] The vessel owner subsequently filed a Complaint for Limitation of Liability resulting in the stay of the state court suit.[3]

            Arnone then filed a Motion to Remand. The magistrate who initially ruled on it, ordered the case remanded, lifted the stay the state court action and stayed the limitation proceeding.[4] Knab objected to the remand which was reviewed de novo by the district judge.[5]

            On review of the magistrate’s recommendation, Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo reversed the order to remand and determined that though a case filed in state court may not be removed to federal court absent an independent basis of federal jurisdiction such as federal question or diversity, the flaw in the removal may be waived as it was in this case as counsel for Arnone did not file the Motion to Remand until 18 months after the case was removed.[6] Hence, as the court had admiralty jurisdiction the untimely filing of the Motion to Remand was a waiver of any defect.[7]  

            Victory for the vessel owner was, however, ephemeral as the trial judge, nonetheless, affirmed the stay of the limitation proceeding and lifted the stay on the state court case.[8] 

[1] Arnone, 2023 WL 4991927 at *1.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id. at *2.

[6] Arnone, 2023 WL 4991927 at *4.

[7] Id. at 5.

[8] Id. at *8.