Opinion ID: 419681
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of the Burford Abstention Doctrine

Text: 43 The district court dismissed with prejudice Dr. Brandwein's challenge to the regulations promulgated by the Osteopathic Board on the ground that abstention was appropriate under the principles set out in Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943). 44 It appears that invocation of the abstention doctrine was unnecessary in this case. Aside from one equal protection claim, properly rejected by the district court, 4 plaintiff contests the regulations principally on state law grounds. The regulations 5 are claimed to violate the California Administrative Procedure Act, because they fail to refer to the statutory authority under which they were adopted, and because they are in excess of the authority granted to the Osteopathic Board. As such, these are state law pendant claims which should have been dismissed without prejudice when the federal claims were dismissed. United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966); Lamb v. Scripps College, 627 F.2d at 1018; 13 C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 3567 (1975 & Supp.1982). Even if the district court were correct in dismissing under the Burford doctrine, the dismissal should have been without prejudice. See Santa Fe Land Improvement Co. v. City of Chula Vista, 596 F.2d 838 (9th Cir.1979). Accordingly, we remand to the district court with instructions to dismiss without prejudice Counts Five and Six, the challenges to the Osteopathic Board regulations.