Court Opinion

ID: 9481579
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:24:31.435739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:26.112173
License: Public Domain

*131KEARSE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the judgment to the extent that it (a) vacates the district court’s dismissal of the complaint on Rule 12(b)(6) grounds and requires dismissal instead for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and (b) imposes sanctions in connection with this appeal. I respectfully dissent, however, from so much of the judgment as affirms the award of Rule 11 sanctions as imposed by the district court.
The lack of subject matter jurisdiction in this case is plain from the face of the complaint. Jurisdiction was premised on diversity of citizenship; yet the complaint alleged that the plaintiff and one of the two defendants were citizens of the same state. I would agree with the majority that notwithstanding such a lack of jurisdiction, the district court has inherent power to punish misconduct that occurs while the case is before it. See, e.g., United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 258, 289-95, 67 S.Ct. 677, 693-97, 91 L.Ed. 884 (1947) (court has power to hold a party in criminal contempt for failure to comply with an order that court had no jurisdiction to enter). Thus, if the district court here had imposed sanctions for some misfeasance such as failure to make required disclosures, see Wojan v. General Motors Corp., 851 F.2d 969, 971, 976 (7th Cir.1988), or for some other “objectionable conduct,” Willy v. Coastal Corp., 915 F.2d 965, 967 (5th Cir.1990); see also Willy v. Coastal Corp., 855 F.2d 1160, 1172 (5th Cir.1988), I would have no difficulty in principle in affirming an award of sanctions. Nor would I have difficulty in concluding that the court had the power to impose sanctions for the frivolous invocation of jurisdiction, see Unanue-Casal v. Unanue-Casal, 898 F.2d 839, 841 (1st Cir.1990); see generally Wojan v. General Motors Corp., 851 F.2d at 974-75.
Here, however, the district court did not notice the obvious lack of jurisdiction and proceeded to rule on the merits of the complaint, and its award of sanctions was premised solely on the lack of merit of the complaint. I do not believe the district court has the power to sanction a party on the sole basis of the lack of merit of a case whose merit the court has no jurisdiction to decide.