ENGLISH v. BANK OF AMERICA NA et al

Filing 37

ORDER ON MOTION TO RE-OPEN CASE denying 36 Motion to Reopen Case By JUDGE D. BROCK HORNBY. (jib)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MAINE
MARILYNN ENGLISH,
PLAINTIFF
V.

BANK OF AMERICA,

ET AL.,

DEFENDANTS

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CIVIL NO. 1:13-CV-265-DBH

ORDER ON MOTION TO RE-OPEN CASE
The plaintiff’s motion to reopen this quiet title lawsuit in federal court is
DENIED.
The plaintiff originally filed her petition to quiet title in Maine Superior
Court for Washington County in 2012. The defendants then removed the lawsuit
to this court over the plaintiff’s objection. On December 9, 2013, I affirmed the
federal Magistrate Judge’s Recommended Decision that the lawsuit should be
remanded back to state court where the plaintiff originally filed it (ECF No. 33).
This court’s docket shows that the Washington County Superior Court received
the case on remand on December 11, 2013 (ECF No. 35).
Now, on April 27, 2018, the plaintiff has moved to reopen the case in this
federal court (ECF No. 36).1 She apparently is unhappy with what has happened
since the remand. Among other things she attaches as an exhibit a June 4,

She also seeks to reopen case number 1:15-cv-345-JDL, but that is a case assigned to Judge
Levy of this Court, and I do not address it here.

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2015, decision by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court
affirming the Washington County Superior Court’s dismissal of her complaint
(ECF No. 36-18, at 2).
There is no basis upon which to reopen this case in federal court. The
plaintiff has shown no error in the original decision to remand the case to state
court where she originally filed it and from which it was removed over her
objection.

This federal court’s only role was to determine that it had no

jurisdiction on account of the defendants’ improper removal of the case from
state court. If the plaintiff has any grounds for seeking relief (and I express no
judgment on that question), she must proceed in state court where she filed her
lawsuit and which evidently ruled finally on the matter.
SO ORDERED.
DATED THIS 8TH DAY OF MAY, 2018
/S/D. BROCK HORNBY
D. BROCK HORNBY
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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