Opinion ID: 212272
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Federal Question

Text: Finally, Defendants argue that there is no federal jurisdiction over the remaining declaratory judgment claims in this case because the federal question that would give rise to jurisdiction is asserted in Plaintiffs' defense to a state law cause of action. This argument has merit as to the district court's original jurisdiction over the declaratory judgment claims. See Pub. Serv. Comm'n of Utah v. Wycoff Co., 344 U.S. 237, 248, 73 S.Ct. 236, 97 L.Ed. 291 (1952) (Where the complaint in an action for declaratory judgment seeks in essence to assert a defense to an impending or threatened state court action, it is the character of the threatened action, and not of the defense, which will determine whether there is federal-question jurisdiction in the District Court.); New Orleans & Gulf Coast Ry. Co. v. Barrois, 533 F.3d 321, 329 (5th Cir.2008). However, Defendants fail to consider that the district court could have exercised supplemental jurisdiction over those claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a), which provides in part that in any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction, the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution. The district court had original jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' claim for attorneys' and experts' fees raised pursuant to the SREA, a federal statute. And the declaratory judgment claims are so related to the SREA fees claim that they form part of the same case or controversy; indeed, the resolution of the declaratory judgment claims is entirely correlated with the resolution of the claim for fees, because they all turn on the same question: whether the SREA applies to the SWDA. Nor did the district court's dismissal of the SREA fees claim divest it of supplemental jurisdiction over the declaratory judgment claims. [W]hen a court grants a motion to dismiss for failure to state a federal claim, the court generally retains discretion to exercise supplemental jurisdiction, pursuant to § 1367, over pendent state-law claims. Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 514, 126 S.Ct. 1235, 163 L.Ed.2d 1097 (2006); see 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c) (The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim . . . if . . . the district court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction (emphasis added)). Therefore, `the court's determination may be reviewed for abuse of discretion, but may not be raised at any time as a jurisdictional defect.' Carlsbad Tech., Inc. v. HIF Bio, Inc., ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1862, 1866, 173 L.Ed.2d 843 (2009) (citation omitted). We therefore conclude that the district court had jurisdiction over all of Plaintiffs' claims save the fourth declaratory judgment claim, which requested the district court to declare the state court's interpretation of the SREA to be unconstitutional. Having addressed the subject matter jurisdiction challenges raised by Defendants, we turn to the remainder of Plaintiffs' claims.