Cite as: 523 U. S. 26 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
that case, which got no new trial, the jurisdictional defect (a lack of complete diversity) had been cured by subsequent events. While the statutory error (failure to comply with the § 1441(a) requirement that the case be fit for federal adjudication when the removal petition is filed) "remained in the unerasable history of the case," id., at 73, in the sense that it had not been cured within the statutory period, it had otherwise been cured by the time judgment was entered. The instant case is different from that one, inasmuch as there was no continuing defiance of the congressional condition in Caterpillar, but merely an untimely compliance. It was on this understanding that we held that considerations of "finality, efficiency, and economy" trumped the error, id., at 75. After Caterpillar, therefore, since removal is permissible only where original jurisdiction exists at the time of removal or at the time of the entry of final judgment, the condition contained in the removal statute retains significance. But the § 1407(a) mandate would lose all meaning if a party who continuously objected to an uncorrected categorical violation of the mandate could obtain no relief at the end of the day.6
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
6 Although Cotchett's request for an order of dismissal under Rule 54(b) was not granted until after the Arizona court had assigned the case to itself for trial, there is no reason to reconsider that dismissal order. It was perfectly proper as a pretrial order and, for that matter, was merely the formal reflection of the Arizona court's decision on the merits of the claims that had been resolved prior to that court's decision on the § 1404 transfer.
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