Opinion ID: 669097
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Original Basis of Jurisdiction

Text: 7 As originally filed, jurisdiction in this case was validly exercised as to all claims against all parties. First, the Georgia Plaintiffs asserted federal question claims under COBRA against both Bates and Patterson. There is no dispute that COBRA creates a private cause of action, grounded in federal law, sufficient to create federal question jurisdiction against Patterson. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1395dd(d)(2)(A); 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331. It is true that it has been settled in other circuits that COBRA creates no private cause of action against a private physician and medical professional corporation. See, e.g., Delaney v. Cade, 986 F.2d 387, 393-94 (10th Cir.1993); Baber v. Hospital Corp. of Am., 977 F.2d 872, 876-78 (4th Cir.1992); Gatewood v. Washington Healthcare Corp., 933 F.2d 1037, 1040 n. 1 (D.C.Cir.1991). This court, however, has not decided the applicability of COBRA to parties such as Bates, and, at the time the suit was filed, the law in that area was unsettled in other circuits as well. As a result, the Georgia Plaintiffs originally asserted a non-frivolous federal question claim against both Bates and Patterson. 8 The state law claims by the Georgia Plaintiffs against Bates and Patterson were appropriate under traditional supplemental jurisdiction as supplemental claims. Section 1367 codifies the concepts previously known as pendent and ancillary jurisdiction. Prior to this statute, the primary source of guidance for the exercise of pendent claim jurisdiction was United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). Gibbs divided the analysis into two sections: the power of a federal court to exercise pendent claim jurisdiction, and its discretion not to do so despite having the power. Id. at 725-26, 86 S.Ct. at 1138-39. 9 Section 1367 retains the same dichotomy, though its scope is somewhat different than the Gibbs tests. Under section 1367(a), unless section 1367(b) or (c) applies, the district court shall have  supplemental jurisdiction over both additional claims and additional parties when those claims are so related to claims in the action within [the] original jurisdiction [of the court] that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1367(a). Section 1367(c), however, allows a federal court to exercise some discretion in refusing to hear a case otherwise within its supplemental jurisdiction. 10 In this case, original jurisdiction was initially based on the non-frivolous COBRA claims of the Georgia Plaintiffs against both Bates and Patterson. These claims arose from the two occasions on which Paulette Palmer presented herself to Patterson and Bates and allegedly received either mistreatment or no treatment at all. 4 The Georgia Plaintiffs' state law claims against Patterson and Bates are certainly part of the same case or controversy as the COBRA claims. The Georgia Plaintiffs' state-law claims all arise from the same two events as the COBRA claims. They will involve the same witnesses, presentation of the same evidence, and determination of the same, or very similar, facts. Accordingly, it was within the power of the district court to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims of the Georgia Plaintiffs against both Bates and Patterson, and doing so was not an abuse of discretion. 5 11 Finally, the district court properly assumed jurisdiction over the state-law claims of the Alabama Plaintiffs against Bates and Patterson. There are two possible bases for this exercise: supplemental party jurisdiction and diversity. The exercise of supplemental party jurisdiction would involve both the power and the discretion of the district court in the same manner as discussed above in relation to the supplemental claims of the Georgia Plaintiff. If this was the basis of the district court's exercise of jurisdiction, we cannot say that it was an abuse of discretion. 12 Regardless of the exercise of supplemental party jurisdiction, however, there was diversity in the original format of this case. Diversity jurisdiction, as a general rule, requires complete diversity--every plaintiff must be diverse from every defendant. Strawbridge v. Curtiss, 3 Cranch (7 U.S.) 267, 2 L.Ed. 435 (1806). Since this requirement was designed to prevent abuse of diversity jurisdiction rules, for example by pleading in one diverse party in order to obtain a federal forum, the Supreme Court has recognized an exception to this requirement when abuse is unlikely: a court may ignore the citizenship of a plaintiff which has an independent basis of original federal jurisdiction against the defendant. Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., 358 U.S. 354, 381, 79 S.Ct. 468, 485, 3 L.Ed.2d 368 (1959); see also Hiram Walker & Sons v. Kirk Line, 877 F.2d 1508, 1511-12 (11th Cir.1989); Brown v. Mine Safety Appliances Co., 753 F.2d 393, 395 (5th Cir.1985). In this case, the Georgia Plaintiffs are not diverse from either Bates or Patterson, both of whom are citizens of Georgia as well. However, the Georgia Plaintiffs had, at the inception of this case, a non-frivolous independent basis for federal jurisdiction against both Bates and Patterson--their COBRA claims. Therefore, the Georgia Plaintiffs need not have been considered in determining diversity, leaving only the Alabama Plaintiffs suing Bates and Patterson, Georgia citizens. Consequently, at the inception of this case there was, under Romero, proper diversity jurisdiction for the claims of the Alabama Plaintiffs against Bates and Patterson. 13