Opinion ID: 433580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the hammond cases

Text: 19 On August 21, 1980, William J. Scott, suing as a citizen of Illinois, commenced a class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The complaint alleged that two Indiana municipal corporations, the Hammond Sanitary District and the City of Hammond, had discharged raw and inadequately treated sewage into Lake Michigan, that the sewage created a public health hazard in Illinois, and that the Indiana municipal corporations' conduct constitutes both a public and private nuisance under Illinois law and independently both a public and private nuisance under federal common law. Scott's complaint alleged federal jurisdiction based on both diversity of citizenship and the existence of a federal question under the federal common law of nuisance.
20 On September 5, 1980, Illinois and the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago (collectively Illinois) filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, against the City of Hammond, the Hammond Sanitary District, and the District's manager and trustees (collectively Hammond). In addition to the federal common law and state common law nuisance claims asserted in Scott's federal complaint, the Illinois complaint alleged a trespass under Illinois common law, a violation of the Illinois Pollution Control Board's water quality standards, and a violation of Illinois Environmental Protection Act. On the petition of Hammond, the case was removed to federal court on the ground that the federal common law of nuisance provided federal question jurisdiction and that pendent jurisdiction existed over the state law claims. On October 20, 1980, the District Court denied the plaintiffs' motion to remand the case to the state court. Illinois v. Sanitary District of Hammond, 498 F.Supp. 166 (N.D.Ill.1980). 21 On June 24, 1981, based upon Milwaukee II, the district court granted Hammond's motions to dismiss the federal common law nuisance claims. The district court denied dismissal of plaintiffs' state law claims, but certified its ruling for an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(b). Scott v. City of Hammond, 519 F.Supp. 292, 298 (N.D.Ill.1981). We permitted the appeal. 22 Illinois argues for affirmance.