Scottsdale Insurance v. Subscriptions Plus, Inc.

195 F.R.D. 640, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16161, 2000 WL 1145222
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 11, 2000
DocketNo. 99-C-0539-C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 195 F.R.D. 640 (Scottsdale Insurance v. Subscriptions Plus, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scottsdale Insurance v. Subscriptions Plus, Inc., 195 F.R.D. 640, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16161, 2000 WL 1145222 (W.D. Wis. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

CRABB, District Judge.

In this civil action for declaratory relief, plaintiff Scottsdale Insurance Company contends that it has no duty to defend or indemnify any of the named defendants for liability resulting from a van crash in which seven young people were killed and several more injured. Now before the court are the following motions. Defendants Monica Forgues and Nancy Ashton seek dismissal of the case for lack of diversity subject matter jurisdiction or, in the alternative, under the doctrine of abstention because a lawsuit involving the same accident and parties is proceeding in Wisconsin state court. Alternatively, defendants Forgues and Ashton seek a stay of the proceedings in this case. Plaintiff, admitting lack of diversity between itself and defendant Progressive Northern Insurance Company, seeks to drop its claim against defendant Progressive under Fed.R.Civ.P. 21, but asks the court to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over defendant Progressive’s cross claims against other defendants pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367. Finally, defendant Progressive moves for summary judgment, contending that it has no duty to defend or indemnify any of the other defendants for liability resulting from the van crash.

I conclude that defendant Progressive must be dismissed from this case pursuant to Rule 21 and that the court cannot exercise supplemental jurisdiction over defendant Progressive’s cross claims against other defendants because defendant Progressive cannot be joined under Rules 19 or 20 and thus is no longer a party to this case. Because I find that defendant Progressive is not an indispensable party to these proceedings within the meaning of Fed.R.Civ.P. 19, the [642]*642motion to dismiss for lack of diversity subject matter jurisdiction of defendants Forgues and Ashton will be denied. In addition, defendant Progressive’s motion for summary judgment will be denied as moot. Finally, the motion of defendants Forgues and Ashton for the court either to abstain from hearing this case or to stay the proceedings during the pendency of state litigation will be denied.

For the sole purpose of deciding these motions, I find the following facts.

FACTS

On March 25, 1999, a van accident occurred in Rock County, Wisconsin, resulting in seven deaths and numerous injuries. In addition to this lawsuit, three civil lawsuits were filed in Wisconsin state courts and one in Louisiana federal court, which was then transferred to this court (Wild v. Subscriptions Plus, Inc., 00-C-67-C).

Plaintiff issued a commercial general liability insurance policy to defendants Subscriptions Plus, Inc. and Karleen Hillery, its owner, which was in effect at the time of the crash. Defendant Progressive issued a policy to defendant Subscriptions Plus that may have covered the van. Defendants Subscriptions Plus and Hillery tendered the defense of the civil actions and indemnification to plaintiff and other insurers. Plaintiff has retained counsel to defend defendants Subscriptions Plus, Inc. and Hillery in the state court actions although it denies that the policy it issued affords coverage for liability resulting from the crash. Plaintiff initiated this suit in order to resolve the question whether it is obliged to defend or indemnify any of the named defendants.

Defendants Forgues and Ashton are citizens of Wisconsin. Plaintiff is a citizen of Arizona and Ohio. Defendant Progressive is a citizen of Wisconsin and Ohio.

OPINION

There is no dispute that there is not complete diversity between plaintiff and defendants, thereby depriving the court of subject matter jurisdiction over this lawsuit. The question is what is to be done about it. Defendants Forgues, Ashton, Subscriptions Plus, Inc. and Hillery ask that the suit be dismissed in one of two manners: realign the parties along their true interests, in which case diversity would be destroyed; or find defendant Progressive an indispensable party within the meaning of Rule 19(b) and dismiss the case on the basis of defendant Progressive’s non-diverse citizenship from plaintiff. Alternatively, they want the court to abstain from deciding the case until the state court proceeding determining liability is resolved. Plaintiff and defendant Progressive ask that the court allow plaintiff to drop its claim against defendant Progressive pursuant to Rule 21 but maintain supplemental jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1367 over defendant Progressive’s cross claim for summary judgment that it does not have an obligation to defend or indemnify any other party.

A. Realignment

Defendants Forgues and Ashton argue that defendant Progressive should be realigned as a plaintiff in this case and cite American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Trane Co., 657 F.2d 146 (7th Cir.1981), in support. In American Motorists, the plaintiff insurance company filed a diversity action against other insurers that it claimed had a duty to defend the insured. This court realigned the parties according to what I perceived as their real interests and dismissed the case for lack of diversity subject matter jurisdiction. The court of appeals agreed that where jurisdiction is based on diversity, courts may realign parties when “no actual, substantial controversy exists between parties on one side of the dispute and their named opponents, although realignment may destroy diversity and deprive the court of jurisdiction.” Id. at 149 (citing Chase National Bank, 314 U.S. at 69, 62 S.Ct. 15 (“Diversity jurisdiction cannot be conferred upon the federal courts by the parties’ own determination of who are plaintiffs and who defendants.”)). However, the court of appeals reversed my decision to realign the parties, finding that the insurers’ interests were in “substantial conflict ... notwithstanding their common interests in avoiding liability.” Id. at 150. Specifically, the court of appeals found that each insurer would benefit from holdings that the other [643]*643was liable to defend the insured and that this potential benefit was a fact that had been in existence from the beginning of the lawsuit. Id. The court stated that “the propriety of alignment is a matter not determined by mechanical rules, but rather by pragmatic review of the principal purpose of the action and the controlling matter in dispute____ Realignment is proper where there is no actual, substantial conflict between the parties that would justify placing them on opposite sides of the lawsuit.” Id. at 151.

Similarly, in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Ashland Oil, Inc., 951 F.2d 787 (7th Cir. 1992), the plaintiff insurer sought a declaration that it had no duty to defend or indemnify the defendant, its insured, as well as its insured’s victims. The case was in federal court on the basis of diversity subject matter jurisdiction.

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Bluebook (online)
195 F.R.D. 640, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16161, 2000 WL 1145222, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scottsdale-insurance-v-subscriptions-plus-inc-wiwd-2000.