THOMAS WAYNE MILLIGAN, APPELLANT,
v.
LAURIE ANN MILLIGAN, APPELLEE

8th Cir. | 1973-07-26
No. 73-1382
484 F.2d 446 United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1973) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the order remanding the divorce action to state court was not reviewable on appeal and affirmed the remand.


Facts & Procedural History

A defendant in a state divorce action attempted to remove the case to federal court, alleging the state court's temporary orders were discriminatory. …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Thomas W. Milligan was a defendant in a divorce action brought by Laurie Ann Milligan in the Minnesota courts. Mr. Milligan attempted to remove the action to federal court, but after a hearing, the action was remanded to state court. Mr. Milligan appealed to this Court and Mrs. Milligan has filed a motion for summary affirmance of the order of remand pursuant to Rule 8 of the Rules of this Court.1 We grant the motion.

On March 16, 1973, a hearing was held in state court on a motion for temporary relief. Mr. Milligan was ordered to pay temporary child support and attorney’s fees. He was ordered to move from the couple’s home and to give up, temporarily, possession of the family auto. Mrs. Milligan was awarded temporary custody of the children.

On April 12, 1973, Mr. Milligan filed a petition for removal of the action to federal court. The substance of the petition was that the prior state court order was the product of unlawful sex discrimination since both parties stood on an equal footing in all respects, including employment experience, income earned, and ability to care for the children. A hearing was held and the district court found that the action was not subject to removal. The court then ordered the action remanded to state court.

In granting the pending motion, we make the following comments:

a. Removal cannot be maintained in this case under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a) since the citizenship of the parties is not diverse. Blank v. Blank, 320 F.Supp. 1389, 1390 (W.D.Pa.1971).

b. Removal cannot be maintained in this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b) since divorce actions do not engender a federal question, Blank v. Blank, supra, at 1390-1391 & n. 3, and, removal-cannot be maintained where the defendant sets up a federal law as a defense to a nonfederal claim. C. WRIGHT, LAW OF FEDERAL COURTS § 38 at 131 (1971).

c. Normally orders of remand are not reviewable on appeal, except in civil rights cases. LAW OF FEDERAL COURTS, supra, § 41 at 147. 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d).

d. Removal cannot be maintained in this case under 28 U.S.C. § 1443 because removal must be predicated upon a specific right under a law in terms of racial equality. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ex rel Gittman v. Gittman, 451 F. 2d 155, 156 & n. 3 (3d Cir. 1971).

For the foregoing reasons the motion for summary affirmance is hereby granted.

. Although the motion is denominated a motion pursuant to Rule 9 of the Rules of this Court, we think it proper to consider the motion as one in the nature of a Rule 8 motion,


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw