U.S. District Court for the Western Dist. of NY Case Summaries:

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Aug 19, 2008

The court found that, at the time this case was removed to federal court, a reasonable probability existed that the amount in controversy exceeded the threshold for diversity jurisdiction. The plaintiffs' motion to remove the case to state court was therefore denied by Judge Scott.

The Massachusetts magistrate judge had cautioned that the defendant's use of language in the memorandum of law was "over the top, hyperbole, inappropriate, unprofessional." Unprofessional language is not necessarily libelous, however, and Judge Scott found in his report and recommendation that the plaintiffs had failed to articulate a factual or legal basis to preclude application of the privilege to the comments made in the CSX memorandum of law. He recommended dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim.

Judge Skretny adopted the recommendations of Judge Scott in full and dismissed the plaintiffs' complaint.

William Paul Clark, of Collins, Collins & Donoghue, for the plaintiff and Susan C. Roney, of Nixon Peabody LLP, for the defendant