JAMES S. GWIN, District Judge.
Plaintiff Elliot Graiser makes claims on behalf a putative class of customers who purchased "Buy One Get One Free" glasses at Defendant Visionworks of America. Plaintiff alleges that representations associated with the buy one get one free offer violated Ohio's Consumer Sales Practices Act.
The case has been pending before the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas since June 2014.
On November 11, 2015, Defendant again removed the case to federal court. This time, Defendant removed under the theory of federal question jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act ("CAFA").
Jurisdiction under CAFA requires showing that the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million. Defendant states that "in preparation for the October 29, 2015 mediation" Defendant applied its sales figures to the Plaintiff's theory of damages and determined, for the first time, that Plaintiff's sought "just over $5 million in damages."
Plaintiff now moves to remand the case back to state court. Plaintiff provides a wide array of alternative theories why removal was improper. But the most persuasive is this: Defendant had thirty days to remove the case from the time the case became removable, and Defendant failed to do so.
The Amended Complaint was filed in April 2015. Defendant filed this notice of removal more than six months later in November 2015. Defendant claims that they only became aware of CAFA jurisdiction when running sales numbers in preparation for mediation on October 29, 2015. However, Defendant possessed its own sales data at the time the Amended Complaint was filed. Defendant was able to "ascertain" CAFA jurisdiction from that point forward.
Plaintiff also raises persuasive arguments that, from the time of the April 2015 Amended Complaint, Defendant could have alternatively sought removal under diversity jurisdiction.
Under either theory, Defendant's removal is untimely. A notice of removal must "be filed within 30 days after receipt by the defendant . . . of an amended pleading . . . or other paper . . . from which it may first be ascertained that the case is one which is or has become removable."
For these reasons, the Court
IT IS SO ORDERED.