Opinion ID: 4530983
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Borrás's Puerto Rico Law Claims

Text: Having determined that Borrás's Section 1983 claims were properly dismissed, we next turn to whether the district court properly dismissed Borrás's claims brought under Puerto Rico law. District courts may exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims that are so related to claims in the [federal] action . . . that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). However, it is settled law that district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over pendent state law claims when the anchor federal claims for those state law claims are dismissed. See So. Commons Condo. Ass'n v. Charlie Arment Trucking, Inc., 775 F.3d 82, 92 (1st Cir. 2014). [W]hen the federal-law claims have dropped out of the lawsuit in its early stages and only state-law claims remain, the federal court should decline the exercise of jurisdiction by dismissing the case without - 19 - prejudice. Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 350 (1988); see also United States ex rel. Kelly v. Novartis Pharm. Corp., 827 F.3d 5, 15 (1st Cir. 2016) (recognizing that when federal claims are dismissed at such an early stage supplemental state law claims should also be dismissed). Therefore, because the district court properly dismissed Borrás's Section 1983 claims, it acted within its power to decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction and, accordingly, dismiss his pendent Puerto Rico claims as well. But, it appears that, in dismissing Borrás's Puerto Rico law claims without discussion, the district court dismissed them with prejudice, stating that the Complaint . . . is DISMISSED, with prejudice, in its entirety. When declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over claims, it does not wash to dismiss them with prejudice instead of without prejudice. Novartis, 827 F.3d at 16. We therefore vacate the district court's dismissal of Borrás's Puerto Rico law claims with prejudice and remand with instructions to dismiss those claims without prejudice.