Opinion ID: 541964
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dismissal of the Claims of the Individual Plaintiffs

Text: 18 In addition to dismissing ACT's claims against Group W, the district court dismissed all of the claims of the individual plaintiffs, ACT's investors. The court found that none of the statements in the challenged broadcasts defamed or even mentioned the individual plaintiffs: the broadcasts dealt exclusively with ACT as a business organization. Similarly, the court found that Caplan's allegedly defamatory letters also spoke exclusively of ACT and made no mention of the investors. 19 The dismissal of the individuals' claims was clearly proper and supported by the applicable law. Common sense, as well as the law of defamation, dictates that, in order for a claim for defamation to arise, a publication must refer to the individual who seeks to sue on the publication. See National Shutter Bar Co. v. G.F.S. Zimmerman & Co., 110 Md. 313, 318, 73 A. 19, 21 (1909), overruled on other grounds, Cranson v. I.B.M. Corp., 234 Md. 477, 200 A.2d 33 (1964). The mere fact that a publication might injure the investors in a business does not give rise to a claim for defamation in those investors unless the publication appears to refer to the investors individually when construed in the sense in which hearers or readers of common and reasonable understanding would ascribe to [it]. Goldborough v. Orem & Johnson, 103 Md. 671, 682, 64 A. 36, 40 (1906). In order to actionably defame an individual, a publication must contain some special application of the defamatory matter to the individual. Arcand v. Evening Call Pub. Co., 567 F.2d 1163, 1164 (1st Cir.1977). The circumstances of the publication [must] reasonably give rise to the conclusion that there is a particular reference to the individual. Church of Scientology of Cal. v. Flynn, 744 F.2d 694, 697 n. 5 (9th Cir.1984); see also Provisional Gov't of Republic of New Afrika v. American Broadcasting Cos., 609 F.Supp. 104, 108 (D.D.C.1985) (Allegations of defamation by an organization and its members are not interchangeable. Statements which refer to an organization do not implicate its members) (emphasis added). 20 In addition to unsuccessfully challenging the substantive basis for the dismissal of their claims, the individual plaintiffs also assert that, once the district court had dismissed ACT's claim against Group W for the October 29 broadcast, it lost jurisdiction over the remaining claims. ACT's claim against Group W for the October 29 broadcast was the only claim as to which diversity existed. The appellants argue that, once the court had dismissed this claim, it immediately lost jurisdiction over the rest of the action since the other claims would not be removable if sued upon alone. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1441(c). This argument, however, misconstrues the nature of the federal courts' removal jurisdiction. 21 Once a cause of action has been removed, the district court may determine all issues therein, or, in its discretion, may remand all matters not otherwise within its original jurisdiction. Id. The disposition of the diversity claim does not immediately divest a district court of jurisdiction over the pendent state claims that are properly before it. See Rosado v. Wyman, 397 U.S. 397, 404-05, 90 S.Ct. 1207, 1214, 25 L.Ed.2d 442 (1970); Ondis v. Barrows, 538 F.2d 904, 908 (1st Cir.1976). After a district court has disposed of the jurisdiction-conferring claim, it will then take into account considerations of judicial economy and fairness to the litigants in determining whether to retain jurisdiction over the residual, pendent state claims. United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1139, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). There can be little doubt that, in the present case, these considerations militated in favor of disposing of as many of the plaintiffs' claims as possible. The district court committed no error in dismissing the claims of the individual plaintiffs.