Court Opinion

ID: 9839230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-12 17:01:19.727056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:43.535400
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        SEP 12 2023
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                            FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

JOSEPH DANG, DBA Law Office of Joseph No. 21-55032
Dang, an individual,
                                      D.C. No.
      Plaintiff-counter-              3:19-cv-01519-GPC-AHG
      defendant-Appellee,

 v.                                             MEMORANDUM*

TEOCO CORPORATION GROUP
BENEFIT PLAN, a self funded group health
plan; et al.,

                Defendants,

GLENN C. NUSBAUM; et al.,

      Defendants-counter-
      defendants,

and

DAVID PONTIER, an individual,

      Defendant-counter-claimant-
      Appellant.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Southern District of California
                   Gonzalo P. Curiel, District Judge, Presiding

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
                          Submitted September 12, 2023**

Before: BENNETT, SUNG, and H.A. THOMAS, Circuit Judges.

      Plaintiff-Appellee Joseph Dang (“Dang”) represented Defendant-Appellant

David Pontier (“Pontier”) in a personal injury lawsuit. After Pontier’s case settled,

Pontier, his doctors, and several healthcare benefit plans all claimed rights to the

settlement funds. In August 2019, Dang filed an interpleader action in the

Southern District of California, naming Pontier, the doctors, and the healthcare

benefit plans as defendants (the California suit). Each defendant other than Pontier

either defaulted or sought voluntary dismissal from the case. In December 2020,

the district court ordered the funds disbursed to Pontier as the sole remaining

defendant.

      As part of the interpleader action, Pontier counterclaimed against Dang

alleging conversion, fraud, breach of contract, and legal malpractice. Pontier also

brought counterclaims against Dang and the other individual defendants for

medical fraud, medical malpractice, and violations of the federal and California

Fair Debt Collection Practices Acts. In July 2020, Pontier moved to amend his

counterclaims and motions for joinder of Farmers Insurance, J.P. Morgan Chase,

      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

                                          2
and GEICO.

         While the district court was still adjudicating Pontier’s motions, Pontier filed

his own suit in the District of Nevada against the individual counterdefendants, the

three additional counterdefendants Pontier sought to join, and three new parties—

PHIA Group, LLC, the State Bar of California, and the State of California (the

Nevada suit).1 Complaint, Pontier v. Geico, No. 20-1446 (D. Nev. Aug. 5, 2020),

ECF No. 1. Pontier’s Nevada suit alleges conversion, bad faith, fraud, and

violations of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act against all Defendants.

Id.

         On October 29, 2020, Dang filed a motion asking the California district

court to enjoin the Nevada suit based on the “first-to-file” rule.2 The district court

granted the motion and enjoined the Nevada suit.3 Pontier appeals from this

determination. We have jurisdiction to consider this interlocutory appeal under 28

1
  In the California suit, the district court granted Pontier’s motion for leave to
amend his counterclaims on October 9, 2020. However, Pontier withdrew his
request to join additional parties on October 29, 2020.
2
    We explain the “first-to-file” rule below.
3
  After the District of Nevada received notice of the first-to-file rule injunction, it
transferred the case to the Southern District of California. See Transfer Order,
Pontier v. Geico, No. 20-1446 (D. Nev. Feb. 1, 2021), ECF No. 24;
Acknowledgement of Transfer, Pontier v. Geico, No. 21-199 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 25,
2021), ECF No. 25.

                                             3
U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). Because the district court did not abuse its discretion, we

affirm the injunction of the Nevada suit. See Pacesetter Sys., Inc. v. Medtronic,

Inc., 678 F.2d 93, 95 (9th Cir. 1982) (applying abuse of discretion standard). We

dismiss all other issues raised by Pontier for lack of jurisdiction.

      The first-to-file rule “may be invoked ‘when a complaint involving the same

parties and issues has already been filed in another district.’” Alltrade, Inc. v.

Uniweld Prods., Inc., 946 F.2d 622, 625 (9th Cir. 1991) (quoting Pacesetter, 678

F.2d at 95). The rule gives the second district the “discretion to transfer, stay, or

dismiss the second case,” see Cedars-Sinai Med. Ctr. v. Shalala, 125 F.3d 765, 769

(9th Cir. 1997), and it also gives the first district the power to enjoin later-filed

actions when the first district has jurisdiction over all parties involved, see Decker

Coal Co. v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 805 F.2d 834, 843 (9th Cir. 1986). In

determining whether the rule applies, courts look to: (1) the chronology of the

lawsuits, (2) the similarity of the parties involved, and (3) “the similarity of the

issues at stake.” See Alltrade, 946 F.2d at 625.

      Dang’s California suit was filed before Pontier’s Nevada suit. Compare

Complaint, Dang v. Pontier, No. 19-1519 (S.D. Cal. Aug. 13, 2019), with

Complaint, Pontier v. Geico, No. 20-1446 (D. Nev. Aug. 5, 2020).4 And the

4
 Moreover, both Pontier’s original and supplemental counterclaims in the
California suit were filed before the Nevada suit. See Counterclaims, Dang v.

                                            4
district court did not abuse its discretion in finding “substantial similarity of

parties” between the two actions. See Kohn Law Grp., Inc. v. Auto Parts Mfg.

Mississippi, Inc., 787 F.3d 1237, 1240 (9th Cir. 2015). As the district court noted,

both cases involve Pontier, Dang, and three of Pontier’s doctors. Although the

California suit does not include JP Morgan Chase, Geico, or Farmers Insurance

Company, the district court granted Pontier’s motion for leave to amend to join

those parties. That Pontier withdrew his motion does not eliminate the substantial

similarity; nor does the addition of Phia Group, Inc., the State of California, and

the California State Bar as defendants in the Nevada suit. Kohn Law Grp., 787

F.3d at 1240.

      The district court also did not abuse its discretion in finding the issues in

both cases created “substantial overlap between the two suits.” Kohn Law Grp.,

787 F.3d at 1241 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The crux of both

Pontier’s counterclaims and the Nevada suit is that Dang (or some other person or

entity) illegally interfered with Pontier’s receipt of the money from the personal

injury settlement. And even if we were to assess only the claims raised originally

by Dang’s interpleader complaint in the California suit, as both suits concern

Pontier’s alleged right to the settlement money and associated damages, their

Pontier, No. 19-1519 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 15, 2020); Supplemental Counterclaims,
Dang v. Pontier, No. 19-1519 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 7, 2020).

                                           5
issues substantially overlap.5

      Finally, Pontier raises many other arguments in his opening brief, some of

which are beyond the scope of this appeal. In addition to contesting the injunction

order below, Pontier argues that: (1) there is no federal subject matter jurisdiction

over the interpleader action; (2) venue in the Southern District of California is

improper; (3) the transfer of the Nevada action to the Southern District constituted

reversible error; and (4) because California and the State Bar of California are

named defendants in Pontier v. Geico, Nevada is a fairer venue.

      Federal jurisdiction is proper over the interpleader action as it is an action

for “property of the value of $500 or more.” 28 U.S.C. § 1335(a). And “[t]wo or

more adverse claimants” are of diverse citizenship as defined in 28 U.S.C. § 1332:

Pontier is a citizen of Nevada, Defendant UMR Inc. is a Delaware corporation,

Defendant TEOCO Corporation Group Benefit Plan is a Delaware corporation

with a principal place of business in Virginia, and Drs. Kim, Nusbaum, and Yoo

are based in California. See Lee v. W. Coast Life Ins. Co., 688 F.3d 1004, 1007 n.1

5
 Because Dang filed a responsive pleading to Pontier’s counterclaims, Pontier may
no longer voluntarily dismiss them under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(c)(1).
We see no reason why a party should be able to assert counterclaims in one federal
suit and then, after the period for voluntarily dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 41 has passed, choose instead to affirmatively file in another district.
We conclude that applying the first-to-file rule here “avoids awarding such
gamesmanship and is consistent with the policy of the first-to-file rule, which is to
maximize judicial economy, consistency, and comity.” Kohn Law Grp., 787 F.3d
at 1240.

                                          6
(9th Cir. 2012).

      On December 23, 2021, this court limited the scope of this appeal to review

of the district court order enjoining the Nevada suit. As that order suggests, we

lack jurisdiction over the three “additional” claims raised on appeal described

above. See Self-Realization Fellowship Church v. Ananda Church of Self-

Realization, 59 F.3d 902, 905 (9th Cir. 1995) (holding that the scope of an appeal

from an injunctive order under § 1292(a)(1) extends only to “matters inextricably

bound up with the injunctive order from which the appeal is taken”).

      AFFIRMED IN PART and DISMISSED IN PART.

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