The district court agreed with defendants' view regarding the scope of the Eleventh Amendment and denied the State's motion for remand. In its subsequent reply, the State reargued the Eleventh Amendment point and, in the course of that argument, also asserted in passing that its tort complaint had not raised a federal question. Defendants responded by arguing that the Eleventh Amendment applies to suits brought against the States, not to suits brought by a State. The State promptly moved to remand the case back to Muskogee County district court on the ground that removal subjected it to an involuntary assertion of federal court process and thereby violated its immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. Shortly after the state action was commenced, defendants filed a notice of removal in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, broadly alleging several bases for federal jurisdiction in support of removal under 28 U.S.C. The tugboat was owned and operated by defendant Magnolia Marine Transport Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of defendant Ergon, Inc., and was under the command of defendant William Joe Dedmon at the time of the accident. The collision caused a portion of the bridge to collapse, resulting in death or serious injury to numerous people as well as substantial property damage. The State filed this tort action in the District Court of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, to recover damages it incurred when a tugboat pushing two barges on the Arkansas River collided with the Interstate 40 bridge near Webber Falls, Oklahoma.
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1Ī brief recitation of the immediately pertinent facts should suffice to put the legal questions in context. Accordingly, we remand the case for further consideration of several alternative bases for federal question jurisdiction invoked in defendants' petition for removal. As explained below, we take jurisdiction of this interlocutory appeal under a particular variant of the collateral order doctrine, and, on the merits, hold that (1) the State's Eleventh Amendment immunity did not bar removal, but (2) the specific basis for federal question jurisdiction relied on by the district court was insufficient to support removal. The State asserts that removal of the case both violated the Eleventh Amendment and rested on an erroneous assertion of federal question jurisdiction. The plaintiff State of Oklahoma appeals from the denial of its motion to remand this case back to state court. Wohlgemuth of Norman Wohlgemuth Chandler & Dowdell, Tulsa, OK, for Defendant-Appellee William Joseph Dedmon.
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Michael Burrage and Sean Burrage, of Burrage Law Firm, Durant, OK, for Defendants-Appellees Magnolia Marine Transport Company and Ergon, Inc. Eldridge, Assistant Attorneys General, Litigation Section, Oklahoma City, OK, for Plaintiffs-Appellants. Decided: February 24, 2004īefore McCONNELL, ANDERSON, and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges.Į. MAGNOLIA MARINE TRANSPORT COMPANY, a Mississippi corporation Ergon, Inc., a Mississippi corporation William Joe Dedmon, Defendants-Appellees. Drew EDMONDSON, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Mandatory evacuations are in place for Webbers Falls as engineers continue to assess the situation.United States Court of Appeals,Tenth Circuit. I-40 and Highway 64 remain closed Thursday morning due to the incident. ODOT closed I-40 and Highway 64 Wednesday due to fears that the barges would break through a dam on the Arkansas River and cause catastrophic flooding. Officials warned that it would be “catastrophic” if the barges collided with a nearby dam. However, the barges somehow broke loose from the rocks as crews tried to secure them on Thursday. They were still tied together and were stuck on a rock jetty. Initially, the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Facebook that the barges were located several miles upstream from Webbers Falls lock and Dam 16. Officials became worried that the barges would hit the dam, which was already under strain from the flood waters.
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The situation became even worse when authorities learned that the flooding caused two barges on the Arkansas River to become unsecured. If you choose to stay you are doing so at your own risk,” officials wrote on Facebook. “Residents in the Town of Webbers Falls need to evacuate immediately. On Wednesday afternoon, emergency management officials in eastern Oklahoma asked residents to completely evacuate the town due to dangers associated with flooding.
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Officials say two barges that broke free on Wednesday are now headed toward a dam near Webbers Falls. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.