The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit accepted an appeal from a remand order of a district court and reversed that decision. In Pettitt v. Boeing Co., 606 F 3rd 340 (7th Cir. 2010), the district court Sua sponte remanded the case to the Circuit Court of Cook County because the record did not reflect that all defendants consented in a timely fashion to the removal.
The Court of Appeals pointed out that despite Section 1447(d) of the United States Code which prevents appeal of a remand order, it did have jurisdiction because the district court lacked the statutory power to enter a remand order. The failure of all defendants to join in a removal is merely a procedural defect and such defects are waived if a party does not bring a timely motion to remand the case. The Court said it had previously held that “after the 30 days have expired, a district judge may not remand on its own motion for non-jurisdictional problems.” Continental Cas. Co. 29 F 3rd at 295. Therefore, since any procedural defect was waived, the district court lacked power to remand the case on that basis.