Opinion ID: 712184
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court's Post-Removal Actions

Text: 36 We have concluded that the government's eminent domain case was improvidently removed to federal court. In the ordinary case, this conclusion would lead us to remand the action to the district court with instructions to remand the case to the state court. See Abels, 770 F.2d at 27. This case does not, however, fit within the mold of a garden variety improvidently removed case. 37 The district court engaged in actions subsequent to the removal of the government's case which served to integrate the jurisdictionally improper eminent domain case with the trustees' jurisdictionally proper inverse condemnation case. Following removal of the eminent domain case, the eminent domain and inverse condemnation cases were consolidated for discovery purposes and for trial without a jury. Thereafter, the parties entered into a stipulation to submit all of their claims to an arbitrator. Finally, the parties' claims were reduced to one award from the arbitrator and the court entered an order and judgment confirming that award. 38 We must determine whether the district court's merger of the inverse condemnation case with the substantively similar, but jurisdictionally deficient eminent domain case precluded the district court from exercising its jurisdiction over the inverse condemnation case. For the reasons set forth below, we have determined that the district court could not properly exercise its jurisdiction over the inverse condemnation case. 39 It is clear in this case that due to the similarity of the issues in the two cases, the district court's post-consolidation exercise of jurisdiction over the jurisdictionally proper inverse condemnation case also constituted an exercise of authority over the government's jurisdictionally improper eminent domain case. A court may not, however exercise authority over a case for which it does not have subject matter jurisdiction. (See Bender v. Williamsport Area Sch. Dist., 475 U.S. 534, 541, 106 S.Ct. 1326, 1331, 89 L.Ed.2d 501 (1986)). Neither consolidation with a jurisdictionally proper case nor an agreement by the parties can cure a case's jurisdictional infirmities. See McKenzie v. United States, 678 F.2d 571, 574 (5th Cir.1982) (consolidation of jurisdictionally deficient claim with jurisdictionally proper claim does not cure jurisdictional defects) (citations omitted); Reich v. Local 30, IBT, 6 F.3d 978, 982 n. 5 (3d Cir.1993) (parties to action cannot waive subject matter jurisdiction requirements by consenting to court's jurisdiction) (citations omitted). Nonetheless, the district court's consolidation of the cases and the parties' subsequent arbitration agreement had the practical effect of permitting the district court to exercise authority over a case for which it did not have subject matter jurisdiction. We are unwilling to approve of this result. 40 The district court could not exercise jurisdiction without exercising jurisdiction over the improperly removed eminent domain case. The actions by the court and the parties to this action allowed the jurisdictional infirmity of the eminent domain case to taint the court's attempts to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction over the inverse condemnation case. It follows that we must vacate any orders entered by the district court that were entered after the eminent domain case was removed to the district court and in which the district court purported to exercise jurisdiction over both the eminent domain and inverse condemnation case. 41