Texas Business Court Decision – December 5, 2025

No. 25-BC01A-0050    Sun Metals Group, LLC. v. Shuangcheng Yu, et al. (First Div., Judge Bouressa)

Jurisdiction. This action was unilaterally removed to the Business Court by the defendants/counter-plaintiffs more than 10 months after it was filed in the 14th Judicial District, Dallas County, and plaintiff moved to remand the matter on two grounds – that the matter did not meet the $5 million jurisdictional threshold and that removal was untimely under Texas Government Code Sec. 25A.006(f)(1)(B).  The Business Court grants the motion on the timeliness ground.

Held: Under the cited section the window for removal is open for 30 days after the party requesting removal discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, facts establishing the Business Court’s jurisdiction. Defendants argue the 30-day window opened when they filed their fourth amended answer/third amended counterclaim on October 27, 2025, adding a counterclaim for damages in the amount of $710,000 – thereby, in their view, pushing the amount in controversy over the $5 million mark for the first time. The court concludes defendants’ basis for removal was actually evident more than 45 days earlier when plaintiff filed its third amended complaint on September 8, 2025, because the sum of the damages plaintiff sought, together with defendants’ existing counterclaims, then exceeded $5 million; the 30-day window therefore closed on October 8, 2025, and defendants did not remove the matter until October 28, the day after they filed their fourth amended answer/third amended counterclaim. The removal notice was untimely, and the case is remanded to the 14th Judicial District, Dallas County.