Estate of Harshman v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

• Decision Date: 16 August 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-8046.,02-8046.
• Citation: 379 F.3d 1161
• Parties: ESTATE OF Adam HARSHMAN, Rachel Harshman, Brooks Harshman, and Lauren Harshman, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT CORPORATION, a Wyoming Corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1161

379 F.3d 1161

ESTATE OF Adam HARSHMAN, Rachel Harshman, Brooks Harshman, and Lauren Harshman, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT CORPORATION, a Wyoming Corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 02-8046.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

August 16, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, Clarence A. Brimmer, J Robert E. Schroth Sr. (Robert E. Schroth Jr., with him on the briefs), Jackson, WY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Mikel L. Moore (James K. Lubing, Jackson, WY, with him on the brief), Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings & Axelberg, P.C., Kalispell, MT, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before KELLY, HENRY, and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

On February 28, 2000, sixteen year old Adam Harshman was fatally injured while snowboarding over a "table top" jump in the man-made terrain park at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Negligence and wrongful death claims were brought by Adam's mother, Rachel Harshman, his father, Brooks Harshman, and his sister, Lauren Harshman ("the Harshmans" — Wyoming residents) both against Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Corporation ("Jackson Hole" — a Wyoming Corporation) as operator of the ski resort and against the United States as owner of the real property. The district court dismissed the claims against the United States for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and granted summary judgment for Jackson Hole. On appeal, the Harshmans challenge the district court's grant of summary judgment to Jackson Hole. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 we conclude that because the district court dismissed the federal claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, it necessarily lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the pendent state law claims against the non-diverse defendant, Jackson Hole. Accordingly, we VACATE the district court's grant of summary judgment for Jackson Hole and DISMISS.

I

Jackson Hole opened its specially-designated terrain park for snowboarders and skiers in February 2000. It encompassed a portion of an intermediate ski run and was separated by a fence accessed through a gate. Containing various man-made features, it included a "table top" jump constructed of snow piled to create both an inclined ramp and a sloped landing area. Jackson Hole did not follow any specific standards for how the jump should be constructed and altered it to provide a steeper take-off angle the night before Adam Harshman's accident. On February 28, 2000 Adam snowboarded through the gate to the terrain park, maneuvered onto the ramp, jumped through the air, and landed on his upper back and head at a point past the sloped landing area. His resulting injuries proved fatal.

The issue presented to the district court on summary judgment and argued here on appeal is whether Adam's death resulted from an inherent risk of snowboarding. Under the Wyoming Recreation Safety Act, providers of sport or recreational opportunities, such as Jackson Hole, are protected against liability for risks inherent to particular outdoor sports. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-1-123(a). Pursuant to this act, the district court found Adam's accident was the result of an inherent risk of "snowboard jumping and riding over a man-made tabletop jump in a specially designated terrain park." Harshman v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Corp., 200 F.Supp.2d 1329, 1344 (2002). Finding that Jackson Hole owed no duty to protect Adam Harshman from the inherent risks of his snowboarding activity, the district court granted summary judgment for the resort. Id. at 1346.

Despite the predominance of Wyoming state law in this cause of action, the Harshmans pursued their claims in federal district court. Federal jurisdiction was premised on claims arising under the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA") 28 U.S.C. § 1346, against the United States Forest Service ("USFS") which administers a "Special Use Permit" for the ski resort. Jackson Hole's "Special Use Permit" and incorporated "Winter Operating Plan" provided broad oversight of Jackson Hole's operations to the USFS while delegating daily safety decisions and management to Jackson Hole. Harshman, 200 F.Supp.2d at 1336. On the basis of this broad oversight, the Harshmans alleged that the USFS breached a duty to implement proper levels of safety regulation over Jackson Hole's operations.

Finding that the discretionary function exception to the FTCA, 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a), applies to the Forest Service's decision not to regulate the manner in which the resort was operated, the district court granted the United States' Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367, however, the district court retained supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims and the non-diverse party, Jackson Hole. On that jurisdictional basis, the district court granted Jackson Hole's motion for summary judgment, which the Harshmans now appeal, having abandoned their appeal of the United States' dismissal.

We exercise jurisdiction over the limited question of whether having dismissed the FTCA claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the district court properly had jurisdiction to entertain supplemental state law claims. "If the district court lacked jurisdiction, `we have jurisdiction on appeal, not of the merits but merely for the purpose of correcting the error of the lower court in entertaining the suit.'" Gold v. Local 7 United Food & Commercial Workers Union, 159 F.3d 1307, 1310 (10th Cir.1998) (overruled on other grounds) (quoting United States v. Corrick, 298 U.S. 435, 440, 56 S.Ct. 829, 80 L.Ed. 1263 (1936)).

II

On every appeal, "the first and most fundamental question is that of jurisdiction," both of this court and of the district court from which appeal is taken. Great S. Fire Proof Hotel Co. v. Jones, 177 U.S. 449, 453, 20 S.Ct. 690, 44 L.Ed. 842 (1900). On dismissing the Harshmans' claims against the United States, the district court found, and the parties agreed, that "in the interest of justice" it had supplemental jurisdiction over the state law cause of action. Harshman, 200 F.Supp.2d at 1331. If mere agreement among the litigants and the district court were sufficient to confer federal jurisdiction, then our inquiry would be at an end. However, it is well established that the parties "may not by stipulation invoke the judicial power of the United States in litigation which does not present an actual `case or controversy.'" Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 398, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975). Because "lack of federal jurisdiction cannot be waived or be overcome by an agreement of the parties," we must satisfy ourselves not only of our own jurisdiction, "but also that of the lower courts in the cause under review." Mitchell v. Maurer, 293 U.S. 237, 244, 55 S.Ct. 162, 79 L.Ed. 338 (1934). Our first duty, therefore, even if not moved to it by either party, is to ensure sua sponte that we do not "use the judicial power of the United States in a case to which the Constitution and laws of the United States have not extended that power." Mansfield, C. & L.M. Ry. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 384, 4 S.Ct. 510, 28 L.Ed. 462 (1884). As federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction and require both constitutional and statutory authority in order to adjudicate a case,¹ and because important values of federalism and separation of powers are implicated in the limited jurisdiction of federal courts, we are mindful of our duty to avoid deciding what we have no authority to decide. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 94-95, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998). Thus our first, and in this case our only, inquiry is whether we, as well as the district court, properly have jurisdiction over the remaining pendent state law claims once the Harshmans' claims against the United States were dismissed for want of subject matter of jurisdiction.

We begin by examining the basis on which the district court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction. Seeking to vindicate values of economy, convenience, fairness, and comity underlying the judicially-created doctrine of pendent jurisdiction, Congress granted statutory authority to district courts to hear claims that form "part of the same case or controversy" as the claims on which original federal jurisdiction is based. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a); see City of Chicago v. Int'l Coll. of Surgeons, 522 U.S. 156, 173, 118 S.Ct. 523, 139 L.Ed.2d 525 (1997); Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 357, 108 S.Ct. 614, 98 L.Ed.2d 720 (1988). District courts do not otherwise have jurisdiction to hear pendent state law claims but for their intertwinement with claims over which they have original jurisdiction. Section 1367(a) provides that:

Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) or as expressly provided otherwise by Federal statute, in any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction, the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution.

(emphasis added). Judicial economy and fairness result from retaining jurisdiction over mixed state and federal claims where "The state and federal claims ... derive from a common nucleus of operative fact." United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). By not forcing potential litigants either to avoid federal courts or to bifurcate their causes of action between state and federal courts, supplemental jurisdiction promotes the accessibility of federal courts as well as overall judicial economy. In the Harshmans' case, if the district court properly had original jurisdiction, the relation between their negligence and wrongful death claims against the United States and against Jackson Hole would clearly...