Court Opinion

ID: 9478050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:38:49.04857+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:12.612147
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the result and with the lion’s share of the reasons the majority so ably propounds in reaching it. I also agree, or at least sympathize, with much of the dissent, particularly the outlook of its opening paragraphs decrying the profligate waste of resources involved in jurisdictional errors and their rectification.
Both the majority and the dissent urge the prompt repair of jurisdictional mistakes where feasible and where appropriate, by the court authorized to pursue such measures. If the dismissal of a “spoiler” is necessary to retain jurisdiction, clearly a district court may undertake this remedial task. A court of appeals, however, may not. Section 1653 seems to me to allow appellate courts to permit correction of mistaken pleadings, not to change the configuration of a lawsuit by dropping or adding parties or changing the amount in controversy. This interpretation of section 1653 leaves us without any plausible device for empowering appellate courts to perform the necessary surgery.
I also believe that vesting these powers in the first instance in the district courts is sound policy. Here, for example, the issue is whether Bettison can be dropped without unfair prejudice to the remaining defendants. The district court is inherently better qualified to address this concern — acquainted as it is with all the practical baggage of the ongoing case — than we who must view matters from afar. Further, the district court, in deciding whether, and if so how, to remedy a jurisdictional problem, acts (hopefully) with less of an eye to the merits than we who, by restoring jurisdiction, become entitled to reverse.
I am not overly troubled by the metaphysics of retroactivity in performing jurisdictional surgery. This is particularly true when we are faced with the kind of obscure deficiencies found in the instant case. But I think these operations should be undertaken by the court clearly authorized in the premises and best informed about the practical realities of the case.