Dine v. Uniroyal Tire Co.

754 F. Supp. 98, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 582, 1991 WL 4171
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 18, 1991
DocketCiv. A. No. S89-0726(R)
StatusPublished

This text of 754 F. Supp. 98 (Dine v. Uniroyal Tire Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dine v. Uniroyal Tire Co., 754 F. Supp. 98, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 582, 1991 WL 4171 (S.D. Miss. 1991).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

DAN M. RUSSELL, Jr., District Judge.

This cause is before this Court on a Motion by the Intervenor, The Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company (hereinafter “Hartford”), to Alter and/or Amend the Order of Dismissal and Judgment entered on December 17, 1990.

Facts

The subject motion is before this Court on issues of law and not of fact. The following, therefore, is a chronological summary of the significant pleadings and allegations.

On October 6, 1989, the plaintiff, Robert E. Dine, a citizen of Wyoming, filed a complaint against the defendant, Uniroyal Tire Company, Inc. (hereinafter “Uniroyal”), a New Jersey corporation.

Dine’s complaint arose out of an injury which he suffered while he was an employee of Deas Tire Company in Picayune, Mississippi. In general the complaint alleges that his injury was due to the negligent production and distribution of a defective tire by Uniroyal.

On January 25, 1990, this Court granted Hartford’s Motion to Intervene pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a) and Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-71 (1972). By its intervening complaint, Hartford alleges that as of December 5, 1989, it had paid Dine a total of $5,743.38 in workers’ compensation benefits.

The intervening complaint further states that the aforestated amounts paid, and any additional expenses subsequently incurred by Hartford in relation to this cause, shall be reimbursed “from the net proceeds of [99]*99any recovery in this case from the Defendant.”

Mr. Dine twice failed to appear for his scheduled deposition and Uniroyal motioned this Court to dismiss Dine’s complaint, or in the alternative, to compel the plaintiffs attendance at deposition and for expenses for his failure to attend.

By Order of August 30, 1990, this Court, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37, imposed sanctions in the form of costs upon Dine requiring him to pay the reasonable expenses caused by his failure to attend his deposition.

This Court concluded the August 30, 1990 Order stating that the failure of Dine to comply would result in the dismissal of his complaint with prejudice.

Mr. Dine did not comply with the August 30, 1990 Order and on December 1990, this Court dismissed the complaint with prejudice.

Discussion

The question before this Court is: Does this Court’s Order dismissing Robert Dine’s complaint necessarily dismiss Hartford’s intervening complaint?

Initially, the Court chooses to address Uniroyal’s assertion that any claim which the intervenor might have is “below the jurisdictional amount of $50,000.00.”

The plaintiff’s complaint asserted jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and, in support thereof, alleged diversity of citizenship and $500,000.00 in actual damages. These jurisdictionally sufficient pleadings were never objected to and do not appear to his Court to be patently insufficient.

Hartford’s entry into this cause was based upon intervention of right as provided for in Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a)(2) which permits intervention:

when the applicant claims an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action and the applicant is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the applicant’s ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant’s interest is adequately represented by existing parties.

The interest claimed by Hartford is of course that which is codified in Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-71 (1972), which, in pertinent part, states:

An employer or compensation insurer who shall have paid compensation benefits under this chapter for the injury or death of the employee shall have the right to maintain an action at law against any other party responsible for such injury or death, in the name of such injured employee or his beneficiaries, or in the name of such employer or insurer, or any or all of them. If reasonable notice and opportunity to be represented in such action by counsel shall have been given to the compensation beneficiary, all claims of such compensation beneficiary shall be determined in such action, as well as the claim of the employer or insurer. If recovery shall be had against such other party, by suit or otherwise, the compensation beneficiary shall be entitled to any amount recovered over and above the amount that the employer and insurer shall have paid or are liable for in compensation or other benefits, after deducting the reasonable costs of collection.

This Court observes, as stated in Peerless Dental Supply Co. v. Weber Dental Manufacturing Company, 299 F.Supp. 331 (E.D.Pa.1969), that:

Federal courts have jurisdiction to decide non-federal claims in two instances: (1) when the parties and the subject matter of the litigation fulfill the requirements for diversity jurisdiction, See, Title 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and (2) when the court acts under the concept of ‘ancillary’ jurisdiction.

Id. at 335, and by way of further explanation the Peerless court set out:

Ancillary jurisdiction is a general concept holding that a district court ‘acquires jurisdiction over a case or controversy as an entirety, and hence may, as an incident to disposition of a matter properly before it, possess jurisdiction to decide other matters raised by the case of which it could [100]*100not take cognizance were they independently presented.’ 1 Barron and Holt-zoff, Federal Practice and Procedure (Wright Ed.) § 23.

Id. at 335 n. 3.

This question now narrows to whether the Court retains jurisdiction of ancillary third-party actions after the original claim has been dismissed. Regarding this question, this Court relies upon the language of Kipka v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, 289 F.Supp. 750 (D.Minn. 1968). Notwithstanding that the Kipka court was being called upon to carry the question to an additional degree, the reasoning and authority of that court, applicable to the issue before this Court, was:

The court’s jurisdiction attaches when the complaint is filed and subsequent proceedings ordinarily will not divest the court of jurisdiction once attached. Stewart v. Shanahan, 277 F.2d 233, 236 (8th Cir.1960). As set forth in the pleadings, the requisite diversity of citizenship and jurisdictional amount were present in the main action. It is well settled that third-party claims, and thus logically fourth-party claims, which are ancillary to the main action, need no independent jurisdictional grounds. See, Agrashell, Inc. v.

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Bluebook (online)
754 F. Supp. 98, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 582, 1991 WL 4171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dine-v-uniroyal-tire-co-mssd-1991.