Vanessa Anderson v. Wilco Life Insurance Company ( 2019 )

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[PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 19-14127
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-00008-JRH-BKE
VANESSA ANDERSON,
individually and on behalf of a class of similarly situated persons,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
WILCO LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia
________________________
(November 22, 2019)
Before MARCUS, GRANT and HULL, Circuit Judges.
HULL, Circuit Judge:
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In this interlocutory appeal, defendant Wilco Life Insurance Company
(“Wilco”) appeals from the district court’s order granting plaintiff Vanessa
Anderson’s motion to remand this putative class action back to a Georgia state
court. In this case, Anderson, on behalf of herself and all those similarly situated,
sued her former insurer, Wilco. Anderson alleges that Wilco improperly raised the
cost of insurance premiums for her life insurance policy, which caused her policy
to lapse. As relief, Anderson seeks both money damages and declaratory and
injunctive relief requiring Wilco (1) to reinstate all life insurance policies that were
surrendered or lapsed as a result of the improper premium increases and (2) to
lower premiums.
Anderson filed her lawsuit in the Superior Court of Columbia County,
Georgia. Wilco timely removed the case to the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Georgia under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”), 28
U.S.C. § 1332(d). The federal district court remanded the case to state court,
concluding that Wilco had not met its burden of showing that the amount in
controversy exceeded $5 million, as required by CAFA. This Court granted Wilco
permission to appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1453(c).
Because plaintiff Anderson seeks equitable relief to reinstate a lapsed or
surrendered life insurance policy, we conclude that (1) the face value of the policy
can be used to satisfy the amount-in-controversy requirement, and (2) the
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aggregate face value of the life insurance policies here is over $75 million. Wilco
thus has met its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the
amount in controversy exceeds the $5 million CAFA threshold. Accordingly, we
reverse.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Putative Class Action
In December 2018, Anderson, on behalf of herself and other similarly
situated individuals in Georgia, lodged this class action complaint against Wilco in
Georgia state court. According to the complaint, in 2001, Anderson owned a life
insurance policy (“the policy”) issued by Wilco’s predecessor. The policy had a
$150,000 death benefit, a planned monthly premium of $35, and was set to mature
in 2059, when Anderson reached 100 years old.
Anderson’s policy was a “universal” or “flexible premium adjustable” life
insurance policy. Universal life insurance policies are hybrid products that
combine elements of life insurance with a long-term investment savings
component using market-based yields. The insured’s premiums are deposited into
a savings account, from which Wilco deducts certain monthly expenses to pay for
the life insurance portion of the plan. The monthly deduction is comprised of two
elements: a cost of insurance (“COI”) charge and a nominal monthly expense
charge. The COI charge is calculated based on the policyholder’s mortality risk
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and may be adjusted annually based on the policyholder’s sex, attained age, and
premium class.
The money held in the savings account is called the policy’s “accumulation
value,” and earns interest at a guaranteed rate. For policies like Anderson’s,
defendant Wilco promised to credit interest on the policyholder’s accumulation
value at a guaranteed rate of 3% annually. The policyholder, like Anderson, has
the option of paying her monthly premiums from external funds or from the
policy’s accumulation value. If a policy’s accumulation value is insufficient to
cover a monthly premium deduction, the policy enters a grace period during which
the policyholder must pay a premium sufficient to cover the deduction. If the
policyholder does not, the policy will lapse.
When Anderson purchased her policy in 2001, her annual premium was
approximately $420. Initially, her annual COI charge was less than that premium,
which left some amount each year as accumulated value to grow at the guaranteed
interest rate. Anderson’s annual COI charge, however, increased year after year as
follows:
Policy Year Annual COI Charge Percent Change from
Prior Year
2003-2004 $233.71
2004-2005 $260.00 11.25%
2005-2006 $286.32 10.12%
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2006-2007 $312.62 9.19%
2007-2008 $334.82 7.10%
2008-2009 $352.07 5.15%
2009-2010 $373.54 6.10%
2010-2011 $397.70 6.33%
2011-2012 $578.54 45.47%
2012-2013 $571.98 (1.13%)
2013-2014 $563.10 (1.55%)
2014-2015 $695.31 23.48%
2015-2016 $729.35 4.90%
TOTAL 312.07%
As shown above, the COI charge increased almost every year. However,
Anderson alleges that the sudden and dramatic COI rate increases starting in 2012
were not “based on the insured’s sex, attained age, and premium class on the date
of issue,” but rather on Wilco’s unlawful effort to avoid its contractual obligations.
Wilco allegedly initiated these increases to (1) recoup losses stemming from the
guaranteed interest rates provided with the policies, and (2) force policyholders “to
surrender their policies when the increases become impossible to pay, so that
Wilco can avoid ever having to pay out a death benefit on those policies.” Due to
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the statute of limitations, only COI rates charged after December 6, 2012, are at
issue in this action.
More particularly, Anderson alleged that the COI charge taken from her
accumulation value: (1) increased by 45.47% from 2011 to 2012; (2) decreased by
1.13% and 1.55% in 2013 and 2014; (3) increased again by 23.48% from 2014 to
2015; and then (4) increased by another 4.9% the following year. As a result,
Anderson’s COI charge went from approximately $33.14 monthly ($397.70
annually) to $60.78 monthly ($729.35 annually).
According to Anderson’s complaint, these increases made her policy
unaffordable. While Anderson’s accumulation value had grown to $764.90 by
2012, once Wilco started deducting these increased COI charges, her accumulation
value was completely depleted by July 2017. This caused her policy to lapse.
Anderson asserted that the same thing happened to other putative class members.
Based on these allegations, Anderson claimed that Wilco breached her
policy and the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. She sued on behalf of
all Georgia residents who owned or own policies with the same COI language as
her policy and whose COI rates were increased after December 6, 2012. As relief,
Anderson sought not only money damages, but also declaratory and injunctive
relief requiring Wilco to reverse the allegedly illegal COI rate increase and to
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reinstate all life insurance policies that were surrendered or lapsed as a result of the
increased COI charges.
B. Removal and Remand
As noted, defendant Wilco removed this case to the federal district court
pursuant to CAFA, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d).1 CAFA grants federal district courts
jurisdiction over class actions where (1) any member of the plaintiff class is a
citizen of a state different from the state of citizenship of any defendant, (2) the
aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5 million, and (3) the proposed plaintiff
class contains at least 100 members. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(2)(A), (5)(B), (6);
Dudley v. Eli Lilly & Co., 778 F.3d 909, 911–12 (11th Cir. 2014).
Wilco’s notice of removal alleged that all three CAFA requirements were
satisfied. Anderson does not dispute that two of those requirements are met here—
that is, Anderson is a citizen of Georgia and Wilco is a citizen of Indiana and the
proposed class contains over 100 Georgia residents. The only CAFA requirement
that Anderson contests is the amount in controversy.
1
Wilco also sought removal of this lawsuit based on traditional diversity jurisdiction,
under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), asserting that: (1) Wilco is incorporated and has its principal place
of business in Indiana, while Anderson is a citizen of Georgia; and (2) Anderson’s requested
damages, attorney’s fees, and injunctive relief totaled more than $75,000. Because this
interlocutory appeal concerns solely Wilco’s theory of jurisdiction under CAFA, we do not
discuss traditional diversity jurisdiction here.
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As to the amount in controversy, Wilco stated that, because Anderson sought
to reinstate the lapsed or surrendered life insurance policies—that is those owned
by Georgia residents containing the same COI language as Anderson’s and whose
COI rates had increased after December 6, 2012—the face value of those policies
was at issue. And the aggregate face value of those life insurance policies, i.e., the
death benefits, far exceeded the $5 million CAFA threshold.
Anderson moved to remand the case to state court, asserting that Wilco had
not established the requisite amount in controversy under CAFA. Anderson urged
that it was too speculative to include the life insurance policies’ face value in the
amount in controversy because whether Wilco will be required to pay the
reinstated policies’ full death benefits depended on if each policyholder
(1) chooses to keep the policy, (2) lives until the maturation date, and (3) maintains
the full amount of death benefit, if any.
In its response, Wilco submitted a declaration of one of its operational
managers. The declaration stated that Anderson’s policy was a Conseco Indexed
Universal Life 2 (“CIUL2”) policy and there were 581 CIUL2 policies owned by
Georgia residents that had lapsed or were surrendered since the effective date of
the COI rate increase complained of by Anderson.2 According to Wilco, the
2
In addition, the declaration said that 45 Conseco Universal Life (“CUL”) policies with
an aggregate value of $4,767,287 have also lapsed since Wilco began increasing COI rates.
Anderson disputes that these CUL policies should count in the amount in controversy because
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aggregate face value of those 581 CIUL2 policies was over $75 million. The
declaration also estimated that Wilco had deducted approximately $7 million in
COI charges from Georgia CIUL2 policies for the entire class period.
After considering the complaint, the removal petition, and the evidence, the
district court granted Anderson’s motion to remand. The district court concluded
that Wilco had not met its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
that the amount in controversy exceeded the $5 million jurisdictional threshold in
CAFA. The district court decided that (1) the putative class’s request for
reinstatement of their life insurance policies did not put the face value of the
policies at issue because it was too speculative to assume that Wilco would be
required to pay the face value on those policies, and (2) Wilco did not carry its
burden in showing that the total amount of illegally increased COI charges during
the relevant time period for the putative class exceeded $5 million. The district
court therefore remanded the class action to the Georgia state court. This is
Wilco’s appeal.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
We review de novo a district court’s decision to remand a CAFA case for
lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Dudley, 778 F.3d at 911; S. Fla. Wellness, Inc.
it is unclear that those policies contain the same COI provision as in Anderson’s policy. We
need not resolve this dispute because the aggregate value of the CUIL2 policies alone far
exceeds the $5 million CAFA threshold.
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v. Allstate Ins. Co., 745 F.3d 1312, 1315 (11th Cir. 2014). We review for clear
error the district court’s determination that Anderson failed to establish that the
amount in controversy exceeded $5 million by a preponderance of the evidence.
Dudley, 778 F.3d at 911.
III. DISCUSSION
On appeal, Wilco argues that the district court incorrectly found that this
case did not meet the $5 million amount-in-controversy standard under CAFA.
According to Wilco, because the putative class seeks reinstatement of their lapsed
life insurance policies, the face value of the policies are at issue.
In response, Anderson counters that the putative class is not challenging the
validity or face value of the insurance policies, rather her claim is that she and
others were overcharged for the policies. Anderson submits that because her
allegations challenge the premium costs, only the wrongfully charged premiums
are in the controversy, not the policies’ face values. Anderson also contends that,
because it is difficult to predict when the class members will die, or whether their
policies will remain in effect until their deaths, and, if so, in what amounts, the
value of her request to reinstate the lapsed policies is too speculative to be treated
as the amount in controversy in any event.
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A. Removal Under CAFA
As explained, CAFA permits the removal of class actions to federal court
where the putative class action includes 100 or more members, at least one plaintiff
is diverse from one defendant, and the aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5
million. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332(d), 1453. “Congress enacted [CAFA] to facilitate
adjudication of certain class actions in federal court.” Dart Cherokee Basin
Operating Co., LLC v. Owens, 574 U.S. 81, 89, 135 S. Ct. 547, 554 (2014).
Unlike in ordinary cases, there is no presumption against removal in CAFA cases.
Id. at 89, 135 S. Ct. at 554 (“It suffices to point out that no antiremoval
presumption attends cases invoking CAFA.”).
A defendant seeking to remove a case to federal court must file a notice of
removal that includes “a plausible allegation that the amount in controversy
exceeds the jurisdictional threshold.” Id. When the plaintiff contests or the court
questions the defendant’s allegation, the defendant must prove by a preponderance
of the evidence that the amount in controversy is sufficient. Id.; S. Fla. Wellness,
745 F.3d at 1315. To determine whether the defendant has carried its burden, a
court may rely on evidence put forward by the removing defendant, as well as
reasonable inferences and deductions drawn from that evidence. S. Fla. Wellness,
745 F.3d at 1315.
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“A court’s analysis of the amount-in-controversy requirement focuses on
how much is in controversy at the time of removal, not later.” Pretka v. Kolter
City Plaza II, Inc., 608 F.3d 744, 751 (11th Cir. 2010). Therefore, “the pertinent
question is what is in controversy in the case, not how much the plaintiffs are
ultimately likely to recover” as a result of the lawsuit. Id. (internal quotation
marks omitted); Dudley, 778 F.3d at 913 (“The amount in controversy is not proof
of the amount the plaintiff will recover. Rather, it is an estimate of the amount that
will be put at issue in the course of the litigation.” (internal quotation marks
omitted)); S. Fla. Wellness, 745 F.3d at 1315.
This Court has held that “[f]or amount in controversy purposes, the value of
injunctive or declaratory relief is the ‘value of the object of the litigation’ measured
from the plaintiff’s perspective.” Morrison v. Allstate Indem. Co., 228 F.3d 1255,
1268 (11th Cir. 2000) (quoting Ericsson GE Mobile Commc’ns, Inc. v. Motorola
Commc’ns & Elecs., Inc., 120 F.3d 216, 218–20 (11th Cir. 1997)). Stated another
way, “the value of the requested injunctive relief is the monetary value of the
benefit that would flow to the plaintiff if the injunction were granted.” Id.
(quotation marks omitted). Further, for purposes of CAFA, “we aggregate the
claims of individual class members and consider the monetary value that would
flow to the entire class if [injunctive or] declaratory relief were granted.” S. Fla.
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Wellness, 745 F.3d at 1316 (concluding that a declaratory judgment would entitle
class members to over $68 million in benefits); see also 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(6).
While absolute certainty is not required, “the value of declaratory or
injunctive relief must be sufficiently measurable and certain to satisfy the amount-
in-controversy requirement.” S. Fla. Wellness, 745 F.3d at 1316 (quotation marks
omitted). In turn, the amount-in-controversy requirement is not satisfied if the
value of the injunctive relief to the class plaintiffs is “too speculative and
immeasurable.” Cohen v. Office Depot, Inc., 204 F.3d 1069, 1077 (11th Cir.
2000) (quotation marks omitted); see Leonard v. Enter. Rent a Car, 279 F.3d 967,
973 (11th Cir. 2002) (holding that the value of the injunctive relief in question was
too speculative to include in the amount in controversy).
B. Amount in Controversy Exceeds $5 Million
Here, we conclude that Wilco has carried its burden of establishing that the
amount in controversy exceeds $5 million. This Court has long held that when the
validity of a life insurance policy is at issue in a case, the face value of the
insurance policy is the amount in controversy. See Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am.
v. Muniz, 101 F.3d 93, 94 (11th Cir. 1996).
In Muniz, the plaintiff Guardian Life Insurance Company (“Guardian”)
sought cancellation of a life insurance policy issued to the defendant Estevan
Muniz, alleging that Muniz made fraudulent misrepresentations in the insurance
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application. Id. This Court held that the amount in controversy was the policy’s
face value because, if the policy was valid, Guardian would be exposed to the risk
of a present liability in the amount of the death benefit. See id. (citing N.Y. Life
Ins. Co. v. Swift, 38 F.2d 175, 176 (5th Cir. 1930)). As the death of the insured
was bound to happen at any time, the insurer’s obligation to pay the full face value
of the life insurance policy on the death of the insured is “an ever-present liability.”
Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The uncertainty of the date of the insured’s
death affects the date of payment, not the liability. Id. This Court explained
further:
The policies in suit are contracts by which the insured agrees to pay the
premiums and the insurer agrees to pay the full face value of the policies
on the death of the insured, an event bound to happen. With the
uncertainty of life, it may occur at any time, and is an ever-present
liability, which the insurer can do nothing to avert, except by seeking
relief from a court of equity to cancel the policies on legal grounds. The
policies are not voidable at the option of the insurer, nor is it optional
with the insurer to compel the insured to accept either the loan or cash
surrender value of the policies or to take policies of paid-up insurance.
The only fixed and definite liability of the insurer is to pay the face of
the policy. That amount measures the loss that plaintiff will suffer if
the policies are not canceled.
Id. (quoting Swift, 38 F.2d at 176–77); see also Bell v. Preferred Life Assurance
Soc’y, 320 U.S. 238, 239–40, 64 S. Ct. 5, 5–6 (1943) (using the $1,000 face value
of insurance certificate, not the $202 in premiums, in calculating the amount-in-
controversy requirement in an action concerning a certificate purchased using
fraudulent misrepresentations).
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Similarly, in Waller, this Court held that the face value of a life insurance
policy was to be included in the amount of controversy in a suit between a policy
holder and insurance company because the plaintiff requested injunctive relief that
would keep the policy in force. Waller v. Prof’l Ins. Corp., 296 F.2d 545, 546–48
(5th Cir. 1961) (“Not to be overlooked is the plaintiff’s prayer for an injunction
against [the insurance company], the effect of which—should it be granted—would
be to allow a $50,000 policy to continue until maturity.”).
Accordingly, where a plaintiff insured seeks equitable relief to restore a
lapsed life insurance policy, the continuing validity of the policy is at stake and the
face value of the policy is the amount in controversy. Id. at 547–48; see also In re
Minn. Mut. Life Ins. Co. Sales Practices Litig., 346 F.3d 830, 834–35 (8th Cir.
2003) (holding that the face value of a life insurance policy was at issue where the
insured sought equitable relief pertaining to the enforcement of a lapsed policy);
Elhouty v. Lincoln Benefit Life Co., 886 F.3d 752, 756 (9th Cir. 2018) (“[I]t is
long-established that in declaratory judgment actions about whether an insurance
policy is in effect or has been terminated, the policy’s face amount is the measure
of the amount in controversy.”); Stephenson v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc’y of
the United States, 92 F.2d 406, 409–10 (4th Cir. 1937) (holding that the life
insurance face value, plus the value of the double indemnity feature and disability
provisions, was the amount in controversy in a suit seeking declaratory relief
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restoring the life insurance policy to force). This is because a benefit in the
amount of the policy’s face value would flow to the plaintiff insured if the policy is
reinstated.
Because Anderson, on behalf of the class, seeks declaratory and injunctive
relief requiring Wilco to reinstate the class members’ life insurance policies that
lapsed or were surrendered as a result of the increased COI charges, the face value
of the policies is to be included in the measure of the amount in controversy. And,
as the district court found, Wilco calculated that the aggregate face value of the
581 life insurance policies that lapsed during the class period is over $75 million.
Anderson has not shown that this finding is clearly erroneous. Thus, the amount in
controversy in this suit far exceeds the $5 million CAFA threshold.
This remains true even though Anderson argues that Wilco overcharged
class members for their life insurance policies and also seeks money damages for
what she contends were overcharged COI premiums. The amount in controversy
for this particular lawsuit is the total amount put at issue in the dispute, which
includes the value of the injunctive relief requested and the money damages sought
by the class. And in cases where an insured seeks to reinstate terminated life
insurance policies, the amount in controversy includes the policies’ face value.
Contrary to Anderson’s arguments, the value of the injunctive relief in this
case is not too speculative to be included in the amount in controversy. In support
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of her speculation argument, Anderson points to several possible future events that
would relieve Wilco of its obligation to pay the face value of the policies, such as
(1) if the policyholders later allow the reinstated policies to lapse again, (2) if the
policyholders later surrender the reinstated policies, (3) if the policies mature
before the policyholders die, and (4) how much coverage the policyholders will
have maintained at the time of their death. The problem with this argument is that
the amount in controversy for jurisdictional purposes is not subject to increase or
decrease based on conjecture as to future events. See S. Fla. Wellness, 745 F.3d at
1316.
Rather, the amount-in-controversy analysis focuses on how much is in
controversy at the time of removal, not later. See Pretka, 608 F.3d at 751. And the
pertinent issue is not how much the plaintiffs are likely to ultimately recover, “it is
an estimate of the amount that will be put at issue in the course of the litigation.”
Dudley, 778 F.3d at 913 (quotation marks omitted). Indeed, Anderson’s
speculation argument itself requires “indulging the kind of ‘conjecture,
speculation, or star gazing’ that we have found inappropriate in analyzing the
amount in controversy.” S. Fla. Wellness, 745 F.3d at 1316–17 (quoting Pretka,
608 F.3d at 754).
We are not persuaded that this case is unlike Muniz because of the nature of
universal life insurance policies, as compared to other forms of life insurance. To
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be sure, there was a similar possibility that the insured in Muniz would later
surrender the life insurance policy for cash value or allow it to lapse all together,
yet this Court held that the face value of the policy was the amount in controversy
in the lawsuit. See Muniz, 101 F.3d at 94.
Furthermore, even if after reinstatement of the policies the putative class
members take steps that alter how much money they ultimately will collect from
Wilco that does not necessarily mean that determining now that the amount in
controversy exceeds $5 million is too speculative of a task. “Estimating the
amount in controversy is not nuclear science; it does not demand decimal-point
precision.” S. Fla. Wellness, 745 F.3d at 1317. “The larger the calculated amount
at stake, the easier it is to be confident that collection contingencies should not
count for much.” Id. (“The maximum difference in the amount of payments that
rides on the outcome of the declaratory judgment is in excess of $68 million, which
is more than thirteen times the $5 million amount-in-controversy threshold. Even
if we speculated that 90% of that amount would be siphoned off by one
contingency or another—an extraordinarily unlikely outcome—more than $6.8
million would still be at stake.”). Here, the face value of the life insurance policies
at issue is over $75 million, which is more than 15 times the $5 million amount-in-
controversy threshold under CAFA. Applying the reasoning from South Florida
Wellness, even assuming the unlikely outcome that 90% of that amount would not
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be collected by class members due to one contingency or another, more than $7.5
million would still be at stake. See id.
Anderson’s reliance on Mann v. Unum Life Ins. Co. of Am., 505 F. App’x
854 (11th Cir. 2013) (unpublished) is misplaced because there the disputed long-
term care policy was never terminated, and the plaintiff did not seek to restore a
lapsed policy. See id. at 856–57. Thus, there was never a question in Mann as to
whether the face value of the policy constituted the amount in controversy. Rather,
in Mann, the plaintiff brought a putative class action in state court against the
defendant insurance company, alleging the plaintiffs had been charged insurance
premium rates that were higher than permitted under Florida law. Id. at 855. The
plaintiffs sought, inter alia, an injunction requiring the insurance company to
charge them the lower Florida premium rate going forward. Id. This Court stated
that the defendant insurance company’s calculation as the future revenue it would
forego if it was required to lower its rates for the putative class was too speculative
to be included in the amount in controversy. Id. at 856–57. Noting that the
policies were renewable each year, this Court reasoned that future optional
insurance purchases cannot be included in the amount-in-controversy calculation
because “such valuation is speculative, filled to the brim with the assumptions
about policyholder behavior and Florida insurance rates.” Id. at 857.
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While Mann concerned future purchases of long-term care insurance that
were merely possible, this case concerns the past purchase of life insurance.
Because Anderson and the class seek to reinstate those previously purchased and
lapsed life insurance policies, the face value of the policies is the amount in
controversy. The aggregate value of those policies—over $75 million—exceeds
CAFA’s amount-in-controversy threshold.
For similar reasons, Friedman v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co., 410 F.3d 1350, 1358
(11th Cir. 2005), does not help Anderson either. In Friedman, the plaintiff did not
seek reinstatement of any life insurance policy, and no policy had lapsed. Id.
Rather, the case involved ongoing health insurance policies and rising health
insurance premiums and, as such, it is inapplicable here. Id. at 1351–52. Further,
the Friedman plaintiff’s requested injunctive relief was “an injunction against
continuing violations of Florida law”—which this Court called a “tag-along prayer
for injunction.” Id. at 1358; see also AA Suncoast Chiropractic Clinic, P.A. v.
Progressive Am. Ins. Co., 938 F.3d 1170, 1175–79 (11th Cir. 2019) (concluding
that the injunction requested by a class action plaintiff was merely a de minimis
request and the class action was all about obtaining money damages for past
injuries). In stark contrast, Anderson’s injunctive demand is that Wilco
immediately reinstate the lapsed life insurance policies and that reinstatement
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demand is an integral and key component of her complaint valued at over $75
million.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we must reverse and vacate the district court’s
order remanding the case to state court and remand for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED, VACATED, AND REMANDED.
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