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FINLEY V. UNITED STATES, 490 U. S. 545 (1989) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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FINLEY V. UNITED STATES, 490 U. S. 545 (1989)
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CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURTOF APPEALS FOR
Held: The text of the FTCA -- which provides in pertinent part that the federal district courts shall have jurisdiction over "civil actions on claims against the United States" -- defines jurisdiction in a manner that does not reach defendants other than the United States. This Court's decision in Aldinger v. Howard, 427 U. S. 1, made explicit the nontransferability of Gibbs to the context of pendent party jurisdiction. Aldinger, Zahn v. International Paper Co., 414 U. S. 291, and Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U. S. 365, establish that a grant of jurisdiction over claims involving particular parties does not confer jurisdiction over additional claims by or against different parties, even if consideration of the additional claims would promote "judicial economy and efficiency," and all of the claims "derive from a common nucleus of operative fact." Nor do the circumstances here suffice to establish "ancillary" jurisdiction. The unavailability of jurisdiction over the additional claims is unaltered by the exclusivity of federal jurisdiction under the FTCA, even though that may sometimes require separate suits in state and federal court. Finally, the 1948 revision of the Judicial Code, which changed the relevant language of the FTCA from "any claim against the United States" to its present form, does not suggest an affirmative grant of pendent party jurisdiction, but is more naturally understood as a stylistic chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 546
change reflecting the terminology of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 2. Pp. 490 U. S. 547-556.
SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J.,and WHITE, O'CONNOR, and KENNEDY, JJ., joined. BLACKMUN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 490 U. S. 556. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BRENNAN and MARSHALL, JJ., joined, post, p. 490 U. S. 558.
On the night of November 11, 1983, a twin-engine plane carrying petitioner's husband and two of her children struck electric transmission lines during its approach to a San Diego, California, airfield. No one survived the resulting crash. Petitioner brought a tort action in state court, claiming that San Diego Gas and Electric Company had negligently positioned and inadequately illuminated the transmission lines, and that the city of San Diego's negligent maintenance of the airport's runway lights had rendered them inoperative the night of the crash. When she later discovered that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was in fact the party responsible for the runway lights, petitioner filed the present action against the United States in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The complaint based jurisdiction upon the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), alleging negligence in the FAA's operation and maintenance of the runway lights and performance of air traffic control functions. Almost a year later, she moved to amend the federal complaint to include claims against the original state court defendants, as to which no independent basis for federal jurisdiction existed. The District Court chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 547
granted petitioner's motion and asserted "pendent" jurisdiction under Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U. S. 715 (1966), finding it "clear" that "judicial economy and efficiency" favored trying the actions together, and concluding that they arose "from a common nucleus of operative facts." App. to Pet. for Cert. A-8 to A-9. The District Court certified an interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). That court summarily reversed on the basis of its earlier opinion in Ayala v. United States, 550 F.2d 1196 (1977), cert. dism'd, 435 U. S. 982 (1978), which had categorically rejected pendent party jurisdiction under the FTCA. We granted certiorari, 488 U.S. 815 (1988), to resolve a split among the Circuits on whether the FTCA permits an assertion of pendent jurisdiction over additional parties. Compare, e.g., Ayala v. United States, supra, with Lykins v. Pointer, Inc., 725 F.2d 645 (CA11 1984), and Stewart v. United States, 716 F.2d 755 (CA10 1982), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1018 (1984).
@ 8 U. S. 93 (1807). It chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 548
remains rudimentary law that
73 U. S. 252 (1868) (emphasis added); accord, Christianson v. Colt Industries Operating Co., 486 U. S. 800, 486 U. S. 818 (1988); Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord, 449 U. S. 368, 449 U. S. 379-380 (1981); Kline v. Burke Construction Co., 260 U. S. 226, 260 U. S. 233-234 (1922); 85 U. S. 577-578, 85 U. S. 586-587 (1874); 49 U. S. 449 (1850); 44 U. S. 245 (1845); @ 11 U. S. 506 (1813).
"[p]endent jurisdiction, in the sense of judicial power, exists whenever there is a claim 'arising under [the] Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority . . . ,' U.S.Const., Art. III, § 2, and the relationship
Page 490 U. S. 549
between that claim and the state claim permits the conclusion that the entire action before the court comprises but one constitutional 'case.'"
Analytically, petitioner's case is fundamentally different from Gibbs in that it brings into question what has become known as pendent party jurisdiction, that is, jurisdiction over parties not named in any claim that is independently cognizable by the federal court. [Footnote 2] We may assume, without deciding, that the constitutional criterion for pendent party jurisdiction is analogous to the constitutional criterion for pendent claim jurisdiction, and that petitioner's state law claims pass that test. Our cases show, however, that, with respect to the addition of parties, as opposed to the addition of only claims, we will not assume that the full constitutional power has been congressionally authorized, and will not read jurisdictional statutes broadly. In Zahn v. International Paper Co., 414 U. S. 291, 414 U. S. 301 (1973), we refused to allow a plaintiff pursuing a diversity action worth less than the jurisdictional minimum of $10,000 to append his claim to the jurisdictionally adequate diversity claims of other members of a plaintiff class -- even though all of the claims would together chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 550
have amounted to a single "case" under Gibbs, see Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U. S. 365, 437 U. S. 372 (1978). We based this holding upon "the statutes defining the jurisdiction of the District Court," 414 U.S. at 414 U. S. 292, and did not so much as mention Gibbs.
We reaffirmed and further refined our approach to pendent party jurisdiction in Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, supra, at 437 U. S. 372-375 -- a case, like Zahn, involving the diversity statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1), but focusing on the requirement that the suit be "between . . . citizens of different chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 551
states," rather than the requirement that it "excee[d] the sum or value of $10,000." We held that the jurisdiction which § 1332(a)(1) confers over a "matter in controversy" between a plaintiff and defendant of diverse citizenship cannot be read to confer pendent jurisdiction over a different, nondiverse defendant, even if the claim involving that other defendant meets the Gibbs test. "Gibbs," we said,
The most significant element of "posture" or of "context," id. at 376, in the present case (as in Zahn, Aldinger, and Kroger) is precisely that the added claims involve added parties over whom no independent basis of jurisdiction exists. While in a narrow class of cases a federal court may assert authority over such a claim "ancillary" to jurisdiction otherwise properly vested -- for example, when an additional party has a claim upon contested assets within the court's exclusive control, see, e.g., Krippendorf v. Hyde, 110 U. S. 276 (1884); 65 U. S. 460 (1861), or when necessary to give effect to the court's judgment, see, e.g., Local Loan Co. v. Hunt, 292 U. S. 234, 292 U. S. 239 (1934); Julian v. Central Trust Co., 193 U. S. 93, 193 U. S. 112-114 (1904) -- we have never reached such a result solely on the basis that the Gibbs test has been met. [Footnote 4] And little more basis than that can be relied chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 552
upon by petitioner here. As in Kroger,@ the relationship between petitioner's added claims and the original complaint is one of "mere factual similarity," which is of no consequence, since
"Due regard for the rightful
Page 490 U. S. 553
independence of state governments . . . requires that [federal courts] scrupulously confine their own jurisdiction to the precise limits which the statute has defined."
Petitioner contends, however, that an affirmative grant of pendent party jurisdiction is suggested by changes made to the jurisdictional grant of the FTCA as part of the comprehensive 1948 revision of the Judicial Code. See Pub.L. 773, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 554
62 Stat. 869. In its earlier form, the FTCA had conferred upon district courts "exclusive jurisdiction to hear, determine, and render judgment on any claim against the United States" for specified torts. 28 U.S.C. § 931 (1946 ed.) (emphasis added). In the 1948 revision, this provision was changed to "exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions on claims against the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b) (1952 ed.) (emphasis added). Petitioner argues that this broadened the scope of the statute, permitting the assertion of jurisdiction over any "civil action," so long as that action includes a claim against the United States. We disagree.
The change from "claim against the United States" to "civil actions on claims against the United States" would be a strange way to express the substantive revision asserted by petitioner -- but a perfectly understandable way to achieve another objective. The 1948 recodification came relatively soon after the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provide that "[t]here shall be one form of action to be known as civil action.'" Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 2. Consistent with this new terminology, the 1948 revision inserted the expression "civil action" throughout the provisions governing chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 555
district court jurisdiction. See H.R.Rep. No. 308, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., App. A114-A125 (1947) (Reviser's Notes).
Because the FTCA permits the Government to be sued only in federal court, our holding that parties to related claims cannot necessarily be sued there means that the efficiency and convenience of a consolidated action will sometimes have to be forgone in favor of separate actions in state and federal courts. We acknowledged this potential consideration chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 556
in Aldinger, 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 18, but now conclude that the present statute permits no other result.
If Aldinger v. Howard, 427 U. S. 1 (1976), required us to ask whether the Federal Tort Claims Act embraced "an affirmative grant of pendent party jurisdiction," ante at 490 U. S. 553, I would agree with the majority that no such specific grant of jurisdiction is present. But, in my view, that is not the appropriate question under Aldinger. I read the Court's opinion in that case, rather, as requiring us to consider whether Congress has demonstrated an intent to exempt "the party as to whom jurisdiction pendent to the principal claim" is asserted from being haled into federal court. 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 16 (emphasis omitted). And, as those of us in dissent in Aldinger observed, the Aldinger test would be rendered meaningless chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 557
if the required intent could be found in the failure of the relevant jurisdictional statute to mention the type of party in question,
In a case not controlled by any express intent to limit the scope of a constitutional "case," Aldinger suggests that the appropriateness of pendent party jurisdiction might turn on the "alignmen[t] of parties and claims," and that one significant factor is whether "the grant of jurisdiction to [the] federal chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 558
court is exclusive," 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 18, as is the situation here. Where, as here, Congress' preference for a federal forum for a certain category of claims makes the federal forum the only possible one in which the constitutional case may be heard as a whole, the sensible result is to permit the exercise of pendent party jurisdiction. Aldinger imposes no obstacle to that result, and I would not reach out to create one. I therefore dissent.
"numerous decisions throughout the courts of appeals since [Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U. S. 715 (1966),] have recognized the existence of judicial power to hear pendent claims involving pendent parties where "the entire action before the court comprises but one constitutional case'" as defined in Gibbs."
Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U. S. 693, 411 U. S. 713 (1973). I shall first explain why the position taken by the overwhelming consensus of federal judges is correct, and then comment on major flaws in the opinion the Court announces today.
Article III of the Constitution identifies the categories of "Cases" and "Controversies" that federal courts may have jurisdiction to decide. [Footnote 2/1] If a case is not within one of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 559
specified categories, neither Congress nor the parties may authorize a federal court to decide it. [Footnote 2/2] Objections to a federal court's jurisdiction over the subject matter of a case cannot be waived. [Footnote 2/3] Although Article III strictly confines the subject matter jurisdiction of federal courts, it does not limit the extent of the courts' personal jurisdiction over individual parties [Footnote 2/4] or their power to decide individual claims in cases within any of the specified categories. [Footnote 2/5] A party beyond the reach of a federal court's process may voluntarily submit to its jurisdiction over his person, but he cannot create subject matter jurisdiction -- by waiver, estoppel, or the filing of a lawsuit -- over a non-Article III case. [Footnote 2/6] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 560
It is also undisputed that this power will not be defeated by the joinder of two private defendants. Rule 14(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure expressly authorizes the defendant to implead joint tortfeasors, [Footnote 2/8] and this Rule is applicable chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 561
to FTCA cases. [Footnote 2/9] Moreover, if the claim against nonfederal defendants had been properly brought in a federal court, those defendants could require the United States to defend their claim for contribution in that action. [Footnote 2/10] The dispute between all the parties derives from a common nucleus of operative fact. There is accordingly ample basis for regarding this entire three-cornered controversy as a single "case," and for allowing petitioners to assert additional claims against the nonfederal defendants as they are authorized to do by Rule 20(a) of the Federal Rules. [Footnote 2/11]
Prior to the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938, the federal courts routinely decided state law claims in cases in which they had subject matter jurisdiction, see, e.g., Hurn v. Oursler, 289 U. S. 238, 289 U. S. 246 (1933); 213 U. S. 112-114 (1904); 65 U. S. 460 (1861). [Footnote 2/12] Although the contours of the federal cause of action -- or "case" -- were then more narrowly defined than they are today, see, e.g., Hurn v. Oursler, supra, the doctrine of "pendent" or "ancillary" jurisdiction had long been firmly established. The relevant change that was effectuated by the adoption of the Rules in 1938 was, in essence, a statutory broadening of the dimensions of the cases that federal courts may entertain.
The Court's unanimous opinion [Footnote 2/13] in Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U. S. 715 (1966), highlights the modern conception of a "civil action" and a "constitutional case." At issue was the exercise of pendent jurisdiction over a state law claim in an action brought under the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947. [Footnote 2/14] We wrote: chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 563
"With the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the unified form of action, Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 2, much of the controversy over 'cause of action' abated. The phrase remained as the keystone of the Hurn test, however, and, as commentators have noted, has been the source of considerable confusion. Under the Rules, the impulse is toward entertaining the broadest possible scope of action consistent with fairness to the parties; joinder of claims, parties and remedies is strongly encouraged. Yet because the Hurn question involves issues of jurisdiction as well as convenience, there has been some tendency to limit its application to cases in which the state and federal claims are, as in Hurn, 'little more than the equivalent of different epithets to characterize the same group of circumstances.' 289 U.S. at 289 U. S. 246."
"This limited approach is unnecessarily grudging. Pendent jurisdiction, in the sense of judicial power, exists whenever there is a claim 'arising under [the] Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority . . . ,'
Page 490 U. S. 564
U.S.Const., Art III, § 2, and the relationship between that claim and the state claim permits the conclusion that the entire action before the court comprises but one constitutional 'case.' The federal claim must have substance sufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction on the court. Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U. S. 103. The state and federal claims must derive from a common nucleus of operative fact. But if, considered without regard to their federal or state character, a plaintiff's claims are such that he would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial proceeding, then, assuming substantiality of the federal issues, there is power in federal courts to hear the whole."
Immediately after Gibbs was decided, [Footnote 2/16] federal judges throughout the Nation recognized that its reasoning applied to cases in which it was necessary to add an additional party on a pendent, nonfederal claim in order to grant complete relief. For example, Judge Henry Friendly considered this chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 565
precise question in three separate opinions. [Footnote 2/17] Because he is universally recognized not only as one of our wisest judges, [Footnote 2/18] but also as one with special learning and expertise in matters of federal jurisdiction, [Footnote 2/19] a reference to each of those opinions is appropriate.
Page 490 U. S. 566
that decision, involving federal claims under the copyright laws and state claims of unfair trade practice and unfair competition, including a defendant not named in the copyright claims, we held that a federal court had power to hear a state claim against a party not named in the federal claim, provided the Gibbs test was met, noting that this conclusion was buttressed by our decisions concerning ancillary jurisdiction to entertain compulsory counterclaims under F.R.Civ.P. 13(a), United Artists Corp. v. Masterpiece Productions, Inc., 221 F.2d 213 (2 Cir.1955), and third-party claims under F.R.Civ.P. 14(a), Dery v. Wyer, 265 F.2d 804 (2 Cir.1959)."
It is noteworthy that, in his Leather's Best opinion, Judge Friendly relied, in part, on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, just as JUSTICE BRENNAN had done in the Gibbs opinion itself. Indeed, in another paragraph of his opinion, Judge Friendly concluded that the 1966 amendments to the Rules made it appropriate to extend the ancillary jurisdiction doctrine to the admiralty context, as well as to ordinary civil cases. [Footnote 2/20] In another opinion in 1971, he unequivocally concluded chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 567
"Although the Aldinger Court disapproved of the joinder of a pendent party defendant in the case before it, the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 568
Court explicitly limited its conclusion to "the issue of so-called pendent party' jurisdiction with respect to a claim brought under [28 U.S.C.] § 1343(3) and [42 U.S.C. §]1983," id. at 427 U. S. 18, and noted that "[o]ther statutory grants and other alignments of parties and claims might call for a different result," id. and that "it would be as unwise as it would be unnecessary to lay down any sweeping pronouncement upon the existence or exercise of such jurisdiction," id."
"The circumstances here are about as powerful for the exercise of pendent party jurisdiction as can be imagined. The exclusivity of federal jurisdiction over claims for violation of the Securities Exchange Act makes a federal court the only one where a complete disposition of federal and related state claims can be rendered. Cf. the Court's comment in Aldinger that"
Weinberger v. Kendrick, 698 F.2d 61, 76-77 (CA2 1982), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 818 (1983). In the Weinberger case, the circumstances were "about as powerful for the exercise of pendent party jurisdiction as can be imagined" because Congress had vested the federal courts with exclusive jurisdiction over claims arising under the Securities Exchange Act. The federal district court was therefore the only forum in which the entire constitutional case could be tried at one time. That powerful circumstance is also present in cases arising under the FTCA. In fact, in dicta, the Aldinger Court suggested that pendent party jurisdiction chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 569
might be available under the FTCA for precisely this reason. 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 18.
I would thus hold that the grant of jurisdiction to hear "civil actions on claims against the United States" authorizes the federal courts to hear state law claims against a pendent party. As many other judges have recognized, [Footnote 2/22] the fact that such claims are within the exclusive federal jurisdiction, together with the absence of any evidence of congressional disapproval of the exercise of pendent party jurisdiction in FTCA cases, [Footnote 2/23] provides a fully sufficient chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 570
justification for applying the holding in Gibbs to this case. [Footnote 2/24] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 571
The Court's contrary conclusion rests on an insufficient major premise, a failure to distinguish between diversity and federal question cases, and an implicit reliance on a narrow view of the waiver of sovereign immunity in the FTCA. [Footnote 2/25] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 572
The Court treats the absence of an affirmative grant of jurisdiction by Congress as though it constituted the kind of implicit rejection of pendent jurisdiction that we found in Aldinger v. Howard, 427 U. S. 1 (1976). Its opinion laboriously demonstrates that the FTCA "defines jurisdiction in a manner that does not reach defendants other than the United States," ante at 490 U. S. 553, and that the language of the statute cannot be construed as "adopting pendent party jurisdiction," ante at 490 U. S. 555. That, of course, is always the predicate for the question whether a federal court may rely on the doctrine of ancillary or pendent jurisdiction to fill a gap in the relevant jurisdictional statute. If the Court's demonstration were controlling, Gibbs, Hurn, and Moore, as well as a good many other cases, were incorrectly decided. [Footnote 2/26] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 573
A similar approach, focusing on a legislative intent to bar a party from federal court, guided our analysis in Zahn v. International Paper Co., 414 U. S. 291 (1973), and Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U. S. 365 (1978). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 574
In Zahn, we surveyed the "firmly rooted" law that
The Court today adopts a sharply different approach. Without even so much as acknowledging our statement in Aldinger that, before a federal court may exercise pendent chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 575
party jurisdiction, it must satisfy itself that Congress "has not expressly or by implication negated its existence," 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 18, it now instructs that
Ante at 490 U. S. 556. This rule, the Court asserts, is necessary to provide Congress "a background of clear interpretative rules" and to avoid sowing confusion. Ibid. But as a method of statutory interpretation, the Court's approach is neither clear nor faithful to our judicial obligation to discern congressional intent. While with respect to the joinder of additional defendants on pendent state claims, the Court's mandate is now clear, its approach offers little guidance with respect to the many other claims that a court must address in the course of deciding a constitutional case. Because the Court provides no reason why the joinder of pendent defendants over whom there is no other basis of federal jurisdiction should differ from the joinder of pendent claims and other pendent parties, [Footnote 2/30] I fear that its approach will confuse more than it clarifies. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 576
How much more clear to assume -- especially when the courts have long so held -- that, with respect to all of these situations, Congress intended the Federal Rules to govern unless Congress has indicated otherwise.
"The courts, by recognizing pendent jurisdiction, are
Page 490 U. S. 577
effectuating Congress' decision to provide the plaintiff with a federal forum for litigating a jurisdictionally sufficient claim."
Miller, Ancillary and Pendent Jurisdiction, 26 S.Tex.L.J. 1, 4 (1985). This is especially the case when, by virtue of the grant of exclusive federal jurisdiction, "only in a federal court may all of the claims be tried together." Aldinger, 427 U.S. at 427 U. S. 18. In such circumstances, in which Congress has unequivocally indicated its intent that the federal right be litigated in a federal forum, there is reason to believe that Congress did not intend that the substance of the federal right be diminished by the increased costs in efficiency and convenience of litigation in two forums. Cf. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp., 460 U. S. 1, 460 U. S. 25 (1983); Will v. Calvert Fire Ins. Co., 437 U. S. 655, 437 U. S. 673-675 (1978) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting). [Footnote 2/33] No such special federal interest is present when federal jurisdiction is invoked on the basis of the diverse citizenship of the parties and the state law claims may be litigated in a state forum. See Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U.S. at 437 U. S. 376; Currie, The Federal Courts and the American Law Institute, 36 U. Chi.L.Rev. 1, 21 (1968). [Footnote 2/34] To be sure, "[w]hatever we say regarding the scope of jurisdiction conferred by a particular statute can . . . be changed by Congress," chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 578
ante at 490 U. S. 556, but that does not relieve us of our responsibility to be faithful to the congressional design. The Court is quite incorrect to presume that, because Congress did not sanction the exercise of pendent party jurisdiction in the diversity context, it has not permitted its exercise with respect to claims within the exclusive federal jurisdiction.
" In argument before a number of District Courts and Courts of Appeals, the Government relied upon the doctrine that statutes waiving sovereign immunity must be strictly construed. We think that the congressional attitude in passing the Tort Claims Act is more accurately reflected by Judge Cardozo's statement in Anderson v.
Page 490 U. S. 579
Hayes Construction Co., 243 N.Y. 140, 147, 153 N.E. 28, 29-30: 'The exemption of the sovereign from suit involves hardship enough where consent has been withheld. We are not to add to its rigor by refinement of construction where consent has been announced.'"
United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 340 U.S. at 340 U. S. 554-555. [Footnote 2/37] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 490 U. S. 580
"No such indicia of a restrictive legislative intent toward pendent party jurisdiction exist here. Neither the FTCA nor its jurisdiction-granting statute contains any express proscription of such jurisdiction, and the statute has not spawned any restrictive judicial interpretations that could have been tacitly embraced by Congress. Ortiz, 595 F.2d 73.[4]"
Professor Moore convincingly argues that the Sherwood decision is based on an unsound and outdated application of the maxim that sovereign consent to be sued must be strictly construed. See 3A J. Moore, J. Lucas, & G. Grotheer, Moore's Federal Practice � 20.07(3), pp. 20-55 to 20-58 (2d ed.1987).