Subject Matter Jurisdiction Flashcards
(15 cards)
Subject matter jurisdiction
SMJ is the court’s competence to hear the subject matter of the claim.
Objections to SMJ cannot be waived. The parties cannot consent to the lack of SMJ. Even if the parties do not raise the issue of SMJ, a federal court by its own initiative must dismiss an action if it lacks SMJ.
As courts of limited jurisdiction, federal courts have SMJ if they have federal question jurisdiction or diversity jurisdiction.
Federal question jurisdiction
A federal court has federal question jurisdiction if a federal question appears on the face of a plaintiff’s well-pleaded complaint as part of the plaintiff’s claim, not as part of the defense.
A federal question includes causes of action created by federal statute.
Diversity jurisdiction
A federal court has diversity jurisdiction if:
(1) there is complete diversity, meaning that no plaintiff shares the same citizenship as any defendant; and
(2) the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, excluding costs and interest.
Individual citizenship
An individual is a citizen of their domicile (i.e., where they reside and intend to reside indefinitely).
Corporation citizenship
A corporation is a citizen of their state of incorporation and the state where their principal place of business (i.e., their headquarters) are located.
Unincorporated entity
An unincorporated entity (e.g., partnership) is a citizen of each state in which its members are domiciled.
Legal representative
The legal representative’s citizenship controls except:
- the citizenship of the decedent controls in estate litigation
- the citizenship of the minor controls for guardianship
Foreign national citizenship
A foreign national satisfies the diversity requirement. However, there is no diversity jurisdiction where the action is between foreign nationals.
US national domiciled abroad
A US citizen domiciled abroad is stateless and cannot satisfy the diversity requirement. Thus, diversity jurisdiction does not exist over US citizens domiciled abroad.
Amalgamation of claims
A plaintiff can amalgamate their claims, even unrelated ones, against a defendant to satisfy the $75,000 threshold.
A plaintiff cannot amalgamate their claims against multiple defendants unless the plaintiff alleges joint liability.
Multiple plaintiffs generally cannot amalgamate their claims against a defendant unless they seek to enforce a common or undivided interest.
Minimal diversity
There are cases in which minimal diversity (i.e., at least one plaintiff-defendant pair is diverse) will satisfy the diversity requirement:
- in statutory interpleader actions, only two of the rival claimants have to be diverse from each other.
- under CAFA, in class actions with at least 100 class members claiming over $5M only one class member has to be diverse from the defendant.
Destruction of diversity jurisdiction
Diversity jurisdiction can be destroyed if a party uses improper means to invoke the jurisdiction.
- where there is a legitimate assignment of a claim, the assignee’s citizenship will control.
- a party cannot invoke diversity jurisdiction by failing to name an indispensable party.
- legitimate changes of citizenship are permissible.
- if a party is substituted due to death or incompetence, the substitute party does not have to satisfy the diversity requirement.
- if a party is replaced, the replacement party has to satisfy the diversity requirement.
Supplemental jurisdiction
A court that has original subject matter jurisdiction over a claim has the discretion to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over additional claims arising from a common nucleus of operative facts as the original claim, even if the court lacks independent subject matter jurisdiction over those additional claims.
However, if the primary basis for subject matter jurisdiction is diversity, supplemental jurisdiction is prohibited where the plaintiff makes claims against a non-diverse defendant.
Removal
A defendant can remove a case from state court to federal court if:
(1) all of the defendants consent; and
(2) the notice of removal is filed within 30 days of being served the pleadings from which the possibility of removal was ascertainable.
Note: if the defendant removes on the basis of federal question jurisdiction, only the defendants to the federal question need to consent.
If the primary basis of subject matter jurisdiction is diversity jurisdiction, the defendant cannot remove the action to federal court if:
(a) one of the defendants is a citizen of the forum state; or
(b) the notice of removal was filed more than 1 year after the state court action was filed.
Remand
A plaintiff can remand a case back to state court if the plaintiff moves to remand within 30 days of the notice of removal’s filing.