Cannabis Company’s Tax Claim Removed From Federal District Court

A receivership dispute involving a cannabis company that owes $9 million in taxes was wrongly removed from Santa Barbara County Superior Court, a California district court said.

The US District Court for the Central District of California “finds no basis for federal question jurisdiction” that would compel the federal government’s claim of $9.1 million in unpaid tax against Herbl Inc. to be adjudicated in district court. Judge Otis D. Wright II remanded the case back to the county court, where Herbl’s receivership proceedings begun in 2023.

Herbl, a cannabis distributor, collapsed in 2023, and East West Bank sued in Superior ...