American Express National Bank v. Richards ( 2023 )

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 American Express National Bank, No. CV-23-00329-PHX-MTL 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Geremy Richards, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 This action originated in the Kyrene Justice Peace Court because Plaintiff, 16 American Express National Bank, alleges that Defendant, Geremy Richards, is delinquent 17 on his credit card debt. Defendant removed the action to this Court on the basis of a federal 18 defense, viz., “Defendant is in fact a Federally protected consumer as defined in Title 15 19 U.S. Code § 1692a(3) and as such reserves the right to validate all alleged claims of debt 20 obligations pursuant to Title 15 U.S. Code § 1692g.” (Doc. 1) 21 Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. As such, this Court has an 22 affirmative obligation to determine sua sponte whether it has subject matter jurisdiction. 23 Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Servs., Inc., 545 U.S. 546, 552 (2005). It is well-settled 24 law that a defendant cannot invoke federal subject matter jurisdiction based on his assertion 25 of a federal defense. Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386 (1987). That is precisely 26 what Mr. Richards has done here. And there is no other basis for subject matter jurisdiction. 27 … 28 … 1 Accordingly, 2 IT IS ORDERED: 3 1. This case is remanded to the Kyrene Justice Court. 4 2. Defendants Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis is denied as moot. (Doc. 2) 6 3. Defendant’s Motion for More Definite Statement is denied as moot. (Doc. 7\| 8) 8 4. The Clerk of Court is instructed to close this case. 9 Dated this 29th day of March, 2023. 10 Micha T. Sithurdle 12 Michael T, Liburdi 13 United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 _2-