Opinion ID: 74651
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: supplementary jurisdiction

Text: The appellants argue that the district court erred by not exercising supplementary jurisdiction and discussing their state law claim that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution. A court’s exercise of supplemental jurisdiction is statutorily controlled by 28 U.S.C. § 1367.17 As we 17 The relevant portions of § 1367 provide the following: (a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) or as expressly provided otherwise by Federal statute, 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 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. Such supplemental jurisdiction shall include claims that involve the joinder or intervention of additional parties. (b) In any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction founded solely on section 1332 of this title, the district courts shall not have supplemental jurisdiction under subsection (a) over claims by plaintiffs against persons made parties under Rule 14, 19, 20, or 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, or over claims by persons proposed to be joined as plaintiffs under Rule 19 of such rules, or seeking to intervene as plaintiffs under Rule 24 of such rules, when exercising supplemental jurisdiction over such claims would be inconsistent with the jurisdictional requirements of section 1332. (c) The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim under subsection (a) if – (1) the claim raises a novel or complex issue of State law, (2) the claim substantially predominates over the claim or claims over which the district court has original jurisdiction, (3) the district court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction, or (4) in exceptional circumstances, there are other compelling reasons for declining jurisdiction. 51 have previously held “whenever a federal court has supplemental jurisdiction under section 1367(a), that jurisdiction should be exercised unless section 1367(b) or (c) applies.” Palmer v. Hosp. Auth. of Randolph County, 22 F.3d 1559, 1569 (11th Cir. 1994) (remanding for the district court to consider, in the first instance, whether it had to discretion under 18 U.S.C. § 1367(c) not to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims). The appellants’ state law claims satisfy the “same case and controversy” requirement of section 1367(a); therefore, the district court had the power to consider the appellants’ claim that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution. However, after stating that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated Article 1, Section 1, Paragraph 9 of the Georgia Constitution, see R1-1-3, and listing this alleged violation as one of the legal issues to be tried in the Joint Preliminary Statement and Scheduling Order, see R1-7-1, the appellants abandoned this argument. The appellants did not present this argument in their motion for partial summary judgment, nor did they cite any authority for this argument in their Brief in Support of Motion for Partial Summary Judgement or their Response to Defendants’ Motion For Summary Judgement. See R1-18 at 2 and 4-17; R1-22. After the district court denied both the appellants’ and the City’s 28 U.S.C. § 1367 52 motion for summary judgment, the appellants did not raise their argument that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution in any documents submitted to the district court nor did they urge the issue upon the district court during the two-day bench trial which it conducted. During his opening statement, counsel for the appellants made the following statement regarding the scope of their case: I DON’T WANT TO REPEAT WHAT I’VE SAID IN MY MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT OR WHAT I HAVE SAID IN THE BRIEF THAT I FILED LAST WEEK. JUST SIMPLY WE WANT TO MAKE THREE POINTS. ONE IS WE THINK THAT THE ORDINANCE ON ITS FACE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL BECAUSE OF THE IMMENSE DISCRETION THAT IT GIVES. SECOND OF ALL, WE THINK THAT THE THINGS THAT WERE ASKED FOR ORIGINALLY AND ARE ASKED FOR IN OUR COMPLAINT IN TERMS OF STAGE AND LIGHTING AND ELECTRICITY AND BARRICADES AND SO ON IS IMPORTANT SOLELY BECAUSE IT PROVIDES EFFECTIVE ACCESS. AND AS I POINTED OUT IN MY BRIEF, WE ARE ENTITLED TO EFFECTIVE ACCESS EVEN IF WE ARE NOT ENTITLED TO THE MOST EFFECTIVE ACCESS. AND FINALLY I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT WHEN YOU HEAR, AS YOU HAVE HEARD BEFORE, THE COMMENTS OF THE POLICE THAT YOU SIMPLY CANNOT BAR AN EVENT BECAUSE OF PAST UNLAWFUL ACTIVITY EVEN, I MIGHT ADD, IF MY CLIENT WERE THE ONE WHO HAD ADVOCATED THE PAST UNLAWFUL ACTIVITY, AND THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THAT. R3 at 4-5. The appellants did not discuss their assertion that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution during the two-day trial before the 53 district court and never cited any authority in support of the argument prior to this appeal. The appellants’ failure to brief and argue this issue during the proceedings before the district court is grounds for finding that the issue has been abandoned. Fehlhaber v. Fehlhaber, 681 F.2d 1015, 1030 (5th Cir. 1982) (citing U.S. v. Indiana Bonding & Surety Co., 625 F,2d 26, 29 (5th Cir. 1980) (finding that “[e]ven though [an] issue was listed as one of the defendant’s contentions in the pretrial order, and was thus presumably triable, [the defendant’s] failure to present evidence in support of the defense before the district court precludes our review of it [on appeal]”)). Cf. McMaster v. United States, 177 F.3d 936, 940-41 (11th Cir. 1999) (noting that a claim may be considered abandoned when the allegation is included in the plaintiff’s complaint, but he fails to present any argument concerning this claim to the district court); Lyles v. City of Riviera Beach, Fla., 126 F.3d 1380, 1388 (11th Cir. 1997) (noting that “‘the onus is upon the parties to formulate arguments; grounds alleged in the complaint but not relied upon in summary judgment are deemed abandoned’”) (citation omitted), reh’g granted and vacated by, 136 F.3d 1295 (1998), reinstated by, 166 F.3d 1332, 1336 (11th Cir. 1999) (en banc); Road Sprinkler Fitters Local Union No. 669 v. Indep. Sprinkler Corp., 10 F.3d 1563, 1568 (11th Cir. 1994) (concluding that a district court “could 54 properly treat as abandoned a claim alleged in the complaint but not even raised as a ground for summary judgment”). We conclude that, because the appellants effectively abandoned in the district court their argument that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution, there was no reason for the district court to consider whether to exercise its discretion not to exercise supplemental jurisdiction under section 1367 (b) or (c). Accordingly, the district court did not err by failing to exercise supplementary jurisdiction and discussing the appellants’ claim that the 1994 Festival Ordinance violated the Georgia Constitution. Similarly, because the issue was not appropriately raised in the district court, we will not consider the appellants’ arguments that the 2000 Festival Ordinance violates the Georgia Constitution. See Narey v. Dean, 32 F.3d 1521, 1526-27 (11th Cir. 1994) (discussing the general rule that appellate courts do not consider issues or arguments not raised in the district court and the five exceptions to that rule).