Frykberg v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., C-C-82-531-M.

• Decision Date: 23 February 1983
• Docket Number: No. C-C-82-531-M.,C-C-82-531-M.
• Citation: 557 F. Supp. 517
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of North Carolina
• Parties: Nancy C. FRYKBERG, Plaintiff, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY; and Douglas Turner, Defendants.

557 F. Supp. 517

Nancy C. FRYKBERG, Plaintiff, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY; and Douglas Turner, Defendants.

No. C-C-82-531-M.

United States District Court, W.D. North Carolina, Charlotte Division.

February 23, 1983.

Katherine S. Holliday and Allen J. Peterson, James, McElroy & Diehl, P.A., Charlotte, N.C., for plaintiff.

Harvey L. Cosper, Jr., Golding, Crews, Meekins, Gordon & Gray, Charlotte, N.C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

McMILLAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff Nancy Frykberg brought this Title VII action alleging that she was discriminated against, harassed, and constructively discharged by defendants on account of her sex. She also raises a pendent state law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress for which she seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Defendants have moved to dismiss the state law claim. They argue that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the claim, or, in the alternative, that if the court does have jurisdiction, it should decline to exercise it. Defendants made several other motions to dismiss that have been resolved.

In United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966), a unanimous Court held that federal courts presented with substantial federal claims have power under the Constitution to hear related state claims if the state and federal claims "derive from a common nucleus of operative fact," and are such that the plaintiff "would ordinarily be expected to try them in one judicial proceeding." Id. at 725, 86 S.Ct. at 1138. The court held further that while the power to hear pendent claims might exist in a particular case, a court should hesitate to exercise its jurisdiction where to do so would not serve the interests of convenience, judicial economy, and fairness to the litigants. In addition, the Court said that

if it appears that the state issues substantially predominate, whether in terms of proof, of the scope of the issues raised, or the comprehensiveness of the remedy sought, the state claims may be dismissed without prejudice and left for resolution to state tribunals.

Id. at 726-27, 86 S.Ct. at 1139 (emphasis added).

Defendants do not seriously challenge this court's power to hear plaintiff's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. That claim arises from exactly the same conduct by defendants which forms the basis of plaintiff's Title VII claim. It is hard to imagine a clearer example of state and federal claims which derive from a "common nucleus of operative fact" and which a plaintiff "would ordinarily be expected to try ... in one judicial proceeding." This court, therefore, has jurisdiction over the state law claim.

Defendants, however, urge the court to decline to exercise its pendent jurisdiction in this case for several reasons. They claim that:

(1) The compensatory damages sought by plaintiff in connection with her emotional distress claim are not available to her under Title VII and are more comprehensive than the remedies provided under federal law;

(2) The state law claim involves different elements of proof; the issues associated with it would predominate over the issues related to the federal claim; and the state, but not the federal claim, may be tried to a jury;

(3) The law of emotional distress in North Carolina is greatly unsettled and claims of this sort should therefore be left to the state courts; and

(4) The court has no "pendent party jurisdiction" over the "principal" emotional distress defendant, Douglas Turner.

Defendants' Memorandum at 7-20.

Defendants' first two arguments raise the primary questions the court must consider in deciding under Gibbs whether to exercise its pendent jurisdiction:

First, will the interests of convenience, judicial economy, and fairness to the litigants be served? The convenience and economy of hearing the state and federal claims in one action rather than two is obvious. To send plaintiff to state court on her state claim would require duplication of effort by the parties and their attorneys and by the courts and their personnel. At a time when most state and federal courts are overloaded, two trials should not be conducted where one can fairly do the job.

Trying state claims to a jury and federal claims to the court makes no big deal of the case. Jury trials here frequently take less time and are cheaper than non-jury trials. Even purely federal actions frequently raise both jury and non-jury issues. (The court might decide to use the jury in an advisory capacity with respect to the non-jury claim. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 39(c).)

As to fairness, defendants have not suggested, and the court does not perceive, any unfairness in trying the various claims together.

The second question is whether the state issues substantially predominate over the federal issues. The bulk of the evidence in this case is likely to concern plaintiff's employment history with State Farm, which bears more on the federal than on the state claim. While under the state claim some additional relief has been sought, and some additional issues will no doubt be raised and proof required, the court does not believe that the state issues predominate at all — certainly they do not substantially predominate over the federal issues.

Other courts have reached conflicting results in answering these questions. Compare Guyette v. Stauffer Chemical Co., 518 F.Supp. 521 (D.N.J.1981) (pendent jurisdiction in sex discrimination suit exercised over state claims including intentional infliction of emotional distress) with Kiss v. Tamarac Utilities, Inc., 463 F.Supp. 951 (S.D.Fla.1978) (pendent jurisdiction in sex discrimination suit declined). This court agrees with the well-reasoned opinion of Judge Debevoise in Guyette:

In this case, the interests of judicial economy, convenience and fairness to the litigants weigh heavily in favor of trying both state and federal claims in a single action. A sexual harassment theory of recovery under Title VII bears distinct similarities to, and to a large extent arises out of, common law torts such as assault and battery and intentional interference with contractual relations. See EEOC Guidelines on Sexual Harassment, 29 C.F.R. § 1604.11, promulgated June, 1980. Consequently the evidence necessary to prove a Title VII harassment violation overlaps that necessary to prove underlying state law torts to a significant degree. To require the state claims to be tried in a separate forum would be duplicative and wasteful of the time and resources of the courts and litigants alike.

Defendants argue that the remedies available under state law, particularly compensatory and punitive damages and the right to a jury trial, would circumvent and subvert the equitable and remedial purposes of Title VII. See Gerlach v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co., 448 F.Supp. 1168 (1978) supra. at 1173. Since the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction, however, unlike that of federal pre-emption, determines not the scope of the remedies available but only the forum in which the claims are tried, it would seem a matter of indifference to the federal court whether the state law remedies complement those available under federal law. If the federal court were to decline pendent jurisdiction, the state law claims would presumably be litigated in the state courts, and the effect of the state law remedies upon Title VII policies would be the same. As long as other considerations of fairness and convenience weigh in favor of pendent jurisdiction, therefore, there is no reason why a federal court should refuse pendent jurisdiction simply because state law provides remedies above and beyond those provided by Congress.

Defendants further argue that the state

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