Opinion ID: 624415
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Common Law Pendent Jurisdiction

Text: On appeal, as they did below, Plaintiffs assert that even if the Court of International Trade cannot exercise statutory supplemental jurisdiction over the claims against the Surety Defendants under § 1585 and § 1367, it can exercise non-statutory, common law pendent jurisdiction over those claims. Pendent jurisdiction involves a court's ability to hear a claim for which there is no independent basis for federal jurisdiction, but that arises out of a `common nucleus of operative fact' with a properly asserted claim that does fall within the federal court's subject matter jurisdiction. 16 J. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice § 106.03[2], pp. 106-11 (3d ed. 2011). Pendent jurisdiction has two primary components: pendent-claim jurisdiction and pendent-party jurisdiction. Pendent-claim jurisdiction principles apply in a federal lawsuit involving one plaintiff versus one defendant, where an independent jurisdictional basis exists for one of the claims at issue between the parties, but not for a second state law claim. See id. § 106.03[3]. Pendent-party jurisdiction principles, on the other hand, apply if the plaintiff in the previous example asserts that second state law claim against a third party not named in another claim independently cognizable by the federal court. See id. Thus, pendent-party jurisdiction is often described as involving the exercise of pendent jurisdiction over parties, as opposed to claims between parties already before the court through an independently cognizable federal claim. The seminal Supreme Court case discussing the concept of pendent-claim jurisdiction is United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). There, the plaintiff asserted the following claims against the same defendant: (1) a claim based on a federal statute and (2) a state law claim grounded in Tennessee common law. Id. at 720-21, 86 S.Ct. 1130. The Court held that the district court did not err in exercising jurisdiction over the state law claim, reasoning that a federal court can hear a state law claim if it derives from the same common nucleus of operative fact as the federal claim. Id. at 725, 729, 86 S.Ct. 1130. The Supreme Court also explained, however, that even if a district court has the authority to invoke the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction, [t]hat power need not be exercised because pendent jurisdiction is a doctrine of discretion, not of plaintiff's right. Id. at 726, 86 S.Ct. 1130. The Supreme Court addressed the concept of pendent- party jurisdiction in Finley v. United States, 490 U.S. 545, 109 S.Ct. 2003, 104 L.Ed.2d 593 (1989). In that case, the plaintiff filed a federal claim against the federal government along with state law claims against a local, nonfederal utility company. Id. at 546, 109 S.Ct. 2003. The Court held that no jurisdiction existed over the state law claims asserted against the utility company. Id. at 556, 109 S.Ct. 2003. In reaching this conclusion, the Court explained that the Finley state law claims fundamentally differ[ed] from the state law claim in Gibbs because exercising jurisdiction over the Finley claims would require adding a party to the suit. Id. at 549, 109 S.Ct. 2003; see also id. at 551, 109 S.Ct. 2003 (The most significant element of `posture' or of `context' in the present case ... is precisely that the added claims involve added parties over whom no independent basis of jurisdiction exists. (citation omitted)); id. at 556, 109 S.Ct. 2003 (All our cases ... have held that a grant of jurisdiction over claims involving particular parties does not itself confer jurisdiction over additional claims by or against different parties.). Indeed, in Gibbs, the parties implicated by the state law claim were already before the court through an independently cognizable federal claim. See id. at 549, 109 S.Ct. 2003. [3] The Court of International Trade, applying Finley, concluded that it lacked authority to exercise `common law' supplemental jurisdiction over the Surety Defendant claims. Sioux Honey, 700 F.Supp.2d at 1340. We agree. As explained above, the Court of International Trade has no original jurisdiction over any of the claims against the Surety Defendants. We also concluded that no statutory supplemental jurisdiction exists in this case. Therefore, absent pendent jurisdiction, the Surety Defendants would drop entirely from the suit. Thus, pendent-party jurisdiction is at issue in this casenot pendent-claim jurisdiction, and Finley controls. Finley clearly bars the type of procedural maneuver that Plaintiffs attempt in this case (i.e., bringing additional parties into a lawsuit through claims not independently cognizable in federal court). Following Finley, we conclude that the Court of International Trade does not possess common law, pendent jurisdiction over the Surety Defendant claims at issue in this appeal (Claims 1, 2, 3, and 6). Some statutory grant of authority is required, which, as stated above, does not exist in this case. Because jurisdiction is lacking over the Surety Defendant claims at issue in this appeal, these claims must be dismissed.