Opinion ID: 771751
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Contreras's Remaining Claims

Text: 25 Finally, we note three additional arguments raised by Contreras. Though Contreras devoted the majority of his oral argument to these claims, we find them unconvincing and therefore will dispose of them without much elaboration. Contreras's first of these contentions is that the district court abused its discretion by allowing Suncast to resubmit four affidavits to cure the procedural defect that they had been originally notarized by Baunach, a party to the lawsuit. Contreras has presented no evidence or case law to support the idea that the district court's act of allowing Suncast to replace the invalid affidavits with a disinterested notary's signature constitutes a decision that no reasonable person could agree with--a ruling that is fundamentally wrong. Roy v. Austin Co., 194 F.3d 840, 843 (7th Cir. 1999). We find no error in the district court's actions, and certainly none requiring reversal in this matter. 26 Secondly, Contreras finds error in the district court's decision to dismiss his remaining state law claims without prejudice after the court granted Suncast summary judgment on all federal claims. According to the supplemental jurisdiction statute, a district court may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over pendent state law claims if the court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. sec. 1367(c)(3). A decision to relinquish pendent jurisdiction before the federal claims have been tried is, as we have said, the norm, not the exception, and such a decision will be reversed only in extraordinary circumstances. Disher v. Info. Resources, Inc., 873 F.2d 136, 140 (7th Cir. 1989). Here, given that Contreras has refiled these state law claims in federal court, invoking diversity jurisdiction, we fail to find any extraordinary circumstances that would even approach suggesting that the court, in dismissing the claims, abused its discretion. 27 Lastly, Contreras suggests this case was improperly transferred to Judge Conlon (who rendered the decision on costs), and that therefore the award of costs should be nullified. After summary judgment was granted, this case was transferred from Judge Williams to Judge Conlon, on account of Judge Williams' elevation to this Court. Pursuant to Local Rule 40.1(f), which Contreras cites but inexplicably ignores, cases on the calendar of a leaving judge shall be reassigned under the direction of the Executive Committee. On March 3, 2000, the Executive Committee ordered as follows: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that theClerk [sic] of the Court reassign the above-captioned case by lot to the calendar of an active judge of this court in accordance with the Rules. Given the above-cited local rule and the language of the reassignment order, we do not understand how Contreras could claim that this case was improperly transferred. The issue of costs in this matter was decided by an impartial Article III judge, and to the extent that Contreras's argument implies that the district court circumvented local rules in this regard, we categorically disagree.