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Case file 01

A door that is normally shut.

A federal judge sent a case back to state court on his own motion. By statute, that kind of order usually cannot be appealed. This one was.

The setup.

Caption

Cooper Trust Dtd 10-05-2000, et al. v. John L. Parmigiani

Appeal

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-55939

Reported

746 F. App’x 618 (9th Cir. 2018)

Below

U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division · Los Angeles Superior Court, Van Nuys Courthouse East

Role

Defense — appellant

Client

A registered representative of a FINRA member broker-dealer, after two earlier FINRA arbitrations were dismissed

A California plaintiff sued a New York defendant in Los Angeles Superior Court for breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, negligence and breach of contract. Service of process was defective.

The defendant removed the case to federal court. The district court then sent it back to state court on its own motion. Nobody had asked it to. That distinction is the whole case.

Three courts, one case.

Step one

State court

The case is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Step two

Federal court

It is removed to the Central District of California, which sends it back without being asked.

Step three

Court of appeals

The Ninth Circuit first asks whether it is allowed to look at all. It is. It reverses.

§ 1447(d)

makes an order remanding a case to state court unreviewable “on appeal or otherwise.” So the first question was never whether the district court was wrong. It was whether any court was allowed to say so.

The Ninth Circuit raised the problem itself, ordering the appellant to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. That order had to be answered before anyone reached the merits.

What happened.

  • The order to show cause was discharged, and the Ninth Circuit kept the appeal.
  • The Ninth Circuit reversed the remand order and sent the case back to federal district court for further proceedings.
  • Meanwhile, in state court, over strenuous opposition and without a statute directly on point, the parallel action was stayed for as long as the appeal ran — so the client was not paying to defend the same case twice.
  • After the appeal, the case was dismissed with prejudice.

The record.

In the order it happened. The filings are published on the firm’s website, and each link below opens there.

First — whether the appeal could be heard at all

Then — the appeal itself

Then — the decision

Alongside — holding the state court case still

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Footnotes

  1. Facts on this page are drawn from the firm’s case file at bgelaw.com as published on September 20, 2026. The filings are public court records and are linked, not reproduced.
  2. The dismissal with prejudice is reported as the firm reports it. Those later proceedings are not part of the record linked here.
  3. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
  4. The advertising department’s notes are fictional. The filing cabinet has not been photographed.