Opinion ID: 202808
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Marrero's Threshold Arguments

Text: 20 Marrero advances three threshold, procedural challenges to the dismissal of her section 1983 claims. She argues that the district court erred in allowing the Defendants' motion for a judgment on the pleadings because the Defendants had waived the grounds upon which the district judge relied by failing to consolidate their defenses and raise them in the first motion to dismiss. Second, Marrero contends that the district judge improperly converted the Defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings into a motion for summary judgment. Finally, Marrero raises the argument that the district court ought not have dismissed the ancillary state law claims after finding no cognizable section 1983 claim. These threshold issues are easily dispensed with before addressing the arguments on the merits.
21 The district court dismissed the Plaintiffs' claims by allowing a narrow motion to dismiss and then subsequently allowing a broader motion for judgment on the pleadings. Marrero attacks the district court's allowance of the second motion by parroting the general rule for consolidation of defenses found in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(g). According to Marrero, the Defendants waived the grounds upon which the district court relied in the second motion by failing to raise them when the Housing Department moved to dismiss on Eleventh Amendment grounds. 22 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(g) provides that: 23 A party who makes a motion under this rule may join with it any other motions herein provided for and then available to the party. If a party makes a motion under this rule but omits therefrom any defense or objection then available to the party which this rule permits to be raised by motion, the party shall not thereafter make a motion based on the defense or objection so omitted, except a motion as provided in subdivision (h)(2) hereof on any of the grounds there stated. 24 Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(g) (emphasis added). 25 Marrero ignores the rule's express exception that cross-references subdivision (h)(2) and permits a defense of failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted to be raised by motion for judgment on the pleadings. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(h)(2); see Silva v. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 239 F.3d 385, 387-88 (1st Cir. 2001). 26 Here, the district court entertained and allowed a motion for judgment on the pleadings that raised a defense of failure to state a claim. The district court's action thus squarely meets the exception to the general rule expressed in Rule 12(g) and undermines Marrero's argument.
27 Marrero also argues that the district court improperly converted the motion for judgment on the pleadings into a motion for summary judgment. This argument marries with Marrero's contention that factual issues existed on the merits of her section 1983 claim. Marrero, consumed by her belief that such factual issues existed, concludes that the district judge must have converted the motion for judgment on the pleadings into a motion for summary judgment in order to dismiss the case. There is, however, no support that such a conversion occurred. 28 The record shows that the district court properly considered the matter as a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The Defendants did not attach any documents or exhibits outside their pleadings, and the district court never allowed the parties to supplement the record. See Collier, 158 F.3d at 603 (holding that such a conversion is proper in order to consider materials outside the pleadings). 29 Of course, the implication of this holding is that we will review, as we do below, Marrero's arguments as to why factual issues remained as to her section 1983 claims under the standard for a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which requires the plaintiff to meet only a deferential, notice-pleading requirement to survive dismissal. Aponte-Torres v. Univ. of P.R., 445 F.3d 50, 54-55 (1st Cir.2006).
30 Finally, Marrero raises, though weakly pursues, an argument that the district court failed to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over her ancillary state law claims. Marrero concedes in her brief that the jurisdictional power of the district court rested solely on federal question jurisdiction. As a result, the district court would have needed to exercise supplemental jurisdiction in order to adjudicate claims that arose under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). 31 A district court retains the discretion, however, to decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction where the district court has dismissed all claims over which it had original jurisdiction. Id. § 1367(c)(3); see Rodriguez v. Doral Mortgage Corp., 57 F.3d 1168, 1177 (1st Cir.1995) (As a general principle, the unfavorable disposition of a plaintiff's federal claims at the early stages of a suit, well before the commencement of trial, will trigger the dismissal without prejudice of any supplemental state-law claims.). 32 Here, the district court, after dismissing the section 1983 claim, exercised the discretion to dismiss the supplemental state-law claims. We will not disturb this proper exercise of discretion. See Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 350, 108 S.Ct. 614, 98 L.Ed.2d 720 (1988).