Kline v. United States

587 F. Supp. 1386, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 337, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16260
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 31, 1984
DocketCiv. A. No. 84-0185
StatusPublished

This text of 587 F. Supp. 1386 (Kline v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kline v. United States, 587 F. Supp. 1386, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 337, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16260 (M.D. Pa. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

CALDWELL, District Judge.

I. Introduction

Before the court for disposition is a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b). The motion was filed on behalf of defendant Harry V. Pfautz, D.O., a private physician who allegedly rendered medical treatment to plaintiff Mark T. Kline between February 8 and 15, 1982. For the reasons discussed hereinafter, the motion is denied.

II. Background

Plaintiffs are a husband and wife whose complaint, filed on February 7, 1984, names four defendants whom plaintiffs contend administered or were responsible for the administering of improper and substandard medical care for an infection in plaintiff husband’s left knee. Plaintiffs and the two individual defendants, Pfautz and Bernard I. Zeliger, also a physician, appear to be Pennsylvania residents. Community Gen[1387]*1387eral Osteopathic Hospital, where plaintiff husband received treatment is located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The remaining defendant, the United States, has been brought in as a result of treatment plaintiff received at two Veterans Administration hospitals, located in Lebanon and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Plaintiff has alleged that jurisdiction over defendant United States exists pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1346. Jurisdiction over the other defendants is alleged to be ancillary or pendent. Counts I and II of the complaint are directed to Pfautz, Zeliger, and the hospital. Counts III and IV set forth claims against the United States.1

III. The Dismissal Motion

The basis of the dismissal motion filed in the present action is the pendent jurisdiction doctrine. More specifically the issue is one of whether pendent party jurisdiction should be exercised in the present matter so that plaintiffs claim against Pfautz, a non-diverse defendant against whom no federal claim has been made, may be tried along with the claim against the United States under the FTCA. As has long been recognized, the federal courts are tribunals of limited jurisdiction and the general rule is that their authority to adjudicate matters is limited to that found either in Article III of the United States Constitution or congressional enactments. No doubt exists in the present case that jurisdiction over the United States has been properly invoked under the FTCA. Jurisdiction over Pfautz, however, turns on the issue of pendent party jurisdiction.

The landmark case of United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966) elucidated the concept of pendent jurisdiction but concentrated largely on the propriety of joining state and federal claims rather than joining parties over whom federal jurisdiction exists with those parties over whom there is no independent jurisdictional basis. The Gibbs Court stated,

The federal claim must have substance sufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction on the court [citation omitted]. The state and federal claims must derive from a common nucleus of operative fact. But if, considered without regard to their federal or state character, a plaintiffs claims are such that he would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial proceeding, then, assuming substantiality of the federal issues there is power in federal courts to hear the whole [footnote omitted].
That power need not be exercised in every case in which it is found to exist. It has consistently been recognized that pendent jurisdiction is a doctrine of discretion, not of plaintiffs right [footnote omitted]. Its justification lies in considerations of judicial economy, convenience and fairness to litigants; if these are not present a federal court should hesitate to exercise jurisdiction over state claims, even though bound to apply state law to them [citation omitted]____

Id. at 725-26, 86 S.Ct. at 1138-39, 16 L.Ed.2d at 227-28. Following the pronouncements in the Gibbs ease, pendent jurisdiction was increasingly exercised by federal courts. In Aldinger v. Howard, 427 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2413, 49 L.Ed.2d 276 (1976) and Owen Equipment and Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U.S. 365, 98 S.Ct. 2396, 57 L.Ed.2d 274 (1978), the Supreme Court addressed pendent party jurisdiction. In Aldinger the Court had occasion to address the Gibbs case, to determine exactly what Gibbs did and did not decide, and to identify differences between pendent jurisdiction over claims as distinguished from parties. Although dealing with and declining pendent party jurisdiction in the context of a claim brought under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Justice Rehnquist, writing for the six member Gibbs majority, did recognize the existence of situations other than that before the court and noted,

[1388]*1388Other statutory grants and other alignments of parties and claims might call for a different result. When the grant of jurisdiction to a federal court is exclusive, for example, as in the prosecution of tort claims against the United States under 28 USC § 1346 [28 USCS § 1346], the argument of judicial economy and convenience can be coupled with the additional argument that only in a federal court may all of the claims be tried together [footnote omitted]. As we indicated at the outset of this opinion, the question of pendent-party jurisdiction is “subtle and complex,” and we believe that it would be as unwise as it would be unnecessary to lay down any sweeping pronouncement upon the existence or exercise of such jurisdiction. Two observations suffice for the disposition of the type of case before us. If the new party sought to be impleaded is not otherwise subject to federal jurisdiction, there is a more serious obstacle to the exercise of pendent jurisdiction than if parties already before the court are required to litigate a state-law claim. Before it can be concluded that such jurisdiction exists, a federal court must satisfy itself not only that Artpcle] III permits it, but that Congress in the statutes conferring jurisdiction has not expressly or by implication negated its existence.

427 U.S. at 18, 96 S.Ct. at 2422, 49 L.Ed.2d at 288-89.

In Owen the question answered in the negative by the Supreme Court was whether in a diversity case a plaintiff could assert a claim against a third party defendant over whom no independent basis for federal jurisdiction existed. The facts and procedural background in Owen are clearly distinguishable from the matter before us, however, since Owen was a wrongful death case initiated under Iowa state law. Nevertheless, the analysis utilized is relevant to the proper disposition of the matter before us. As the Court noted,

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Related

United States v. Yellow Cab Co.
340 U.S. 543 (Supreme Court, 1951)
United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs
383 U.S. 715 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Aldinger v. Howard
427 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger
437 U.S. 365 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Lamb v. United States
526 F. Supp. 1117 (M.D. Georgia, 1981)
Tarasewicz v. United States
582 F. Supp. 90 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1984)
Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. United States
519 F.2d 1184 (Fifth Circuit, 1975)
Ayala v. United States
550 F.2d 1196 (Ninth Circuit, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
587 F. Supp. 1386, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 337, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kline-v-united-states-pamd-1984.