Removal after judgment

The United States removed a case after entry of a default judgment against two doctors associated with the federal government (and after their motion for new trial was overruled by operation of law under Texas rules).  Oviedo v. Hallbauer (revised October 14, 2011)  After reviewing several potentially applicable removal statutes, the Court held: “The weight of authority thus holds that, by the time the government filed its notice of removal in this case, there was no pending case to remove, inasmuch as nothing remained for the state courts to do but execute the judgment.”  (Op. at 7)  Given this conclusion about the timeliness of the removal, the Court also rejected an argument based on the Federal Tort Claims Act that the state court may have lacked jurisdiction over this case.  (Op. at 8-10)