Rosario Ortega v. Star-Kist Foods, Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-2530.,02-2530.
• Parties: Maria Del ROSARIO ORTEGA; Sergio Blanco, by themselves and representing minors Beatriz Blanco-Ortega and Patrizia Blanco-Ortega, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. STAR-KIST FOODS, INC., Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

370 F.3d 124

Maria Del ROSARIO ORTEGA; Sergio Blanco, by themselves and representing minors Beatriz Blanco-Ortega and Patrizia Blanco-Ortega, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. STAR-KIST FOODS, INC., Defendant, Appellee.

No. 02-2530.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard November 5, 2003.

Decided June 2, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Freddie Pérez-González, with whom Juan J. Martínez-Rodríguez and Freddie Pérez-González & Assoc., P.S.C. were on brief, for appellants.

David C. Indiano, with whom Alexander H. Bopp and Indiano & Williams, P.S.C. were on brief, for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA and LYNCH, Circuit Judges.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

In April 1999, Beatriz Blanco-Ortega, then nine years old, cut her right pinky finger on a can of Star-Kist tuna. That is not normally the stuff of lawsuits in federal court, but her injuries were more than trivial and led to surgery, the prospect of future surgery, and minor permanent disability and scarring. Beatriz, along with her parents and sister, sued in federal court, asserting diversity jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The claims of Beatriz's family members were composed of emotional distress damages, with the mother asserting medical expenses as well. Plaintiffs' choice of federal court was no doubt influenced by the fact that civil jury trials are unavailable in the local courts of Puerto Rico.

The case raises two issues. First is the classic question whether each of the plaintiffs meets the amount-in-controversy requirement for diversity jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). The district court, using an analytic approach that we have since rejected, see Stewart v. Tupperware Corp., 356 F.3d 335, 339 (1st Cir.2004), held that it was a legal certainty that none of the plaintiffs' claims was worth $75,000 and so dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. As to the injured child, Beatriz, we reverse and hold that it is not a legal certainty that she could not recover an award over $75,000. But we uphold the district court's conclusion that none of Beatriz's family members satisfies the amount-in-controversy requirement.

The second question is whether Beatriz's family members may nonetheless remain as plaintiffs under the supplemental jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1367. This is a very difficult question, new to this court, on which the circuits have split. We hold that by limiting supplemental jurisdiction to "civil action[s] of which the district courts have original jurisdiction," § 1367(a), Congress preserved the traditional rule that each plaintiff in a diversity action must separately satisfy the amount-in-controversy requirement. Accordingly, we affirm the dismissal of Beatriz's family members' claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

I.

On April 17, 2000, Beatriz Blanco-Ortega, along with three family members, filed a diversity suit against Star-Kist Foods Inc., Star-Kist Caribe Inc., and their unnamed insurers in the district of Puerto Rico. Besides Beatriz, the plaintiffs consisted of her mother, Maria del Rosario-Ortega; her father, Sergio Blanco; and her sister, Patrizia Blanco-Ortega. The defendants promptly moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, claiming that there was not complete diversity of citizenship because Star-Kist Caribe Inc., the branch of Star-Kist that does business in Puerto Rico, was a Puerto Rico citizen for purposes of the diversity statute. The district court agreed and dismissed the complaint without prejudice.

The plaintiffs re-filed their complaint on February 28, 2001, this time only naming Star-Kist Foods, Inc. and its unnamed insurers as defendants. The complaint alleged that Beatriz had suffered physical damages of not less than $500,000 and emotional damages of not less than $400,000. It also alleged that each of her three family members had suffered emotional damages in excess of $150,000 and that Mrs. Ortega had also incurred $4,927.07 in past medical expenses and $25,000 in estimated future medical expenses.

On October 24, 2001, Star-Kist moved for summary judgment, alleging that none of the plaintiffs could satisfy the $75,000 amount-in-controversy requirement. The district court agreed and on July 18, 2002, once again dismissed all of the plaintiffs' claims without prejudice for want of jurisdiction. The four plaintiffs appeal that decision.

II.

A. Amount-in-Controversy Requirement

In 1938, the Supreme Court established the basic standard by which to evaluate a challenge that a plaintiff has not met the jurisdictional amount-in-controversy requirement:

The rule governing dismissal for want of jurisdiction in cases brought in federal court is that, unless the law gives a different rule, the sum claimed by the plaintiff controls if the claim is apparently made in good faith. It must appear to a legal certainty that the claim is really for less than the jurisdictional amount to justify dismissal.

St. Paul Mercury Indem. Co. v. Red Cab Co., 303 U.S. 283, 288-89, 58 S.Ct. 586, 82 L.Ed. 845 (1938) (internal citations omitted).

"Under St. Paul, a plaintiff's allegations of damages that meet the amount-in-controversy requirement suffices unless questioned by the opposing party or the court." Spielman v. Genzyme Corp., 251 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2001). Once a defendant questions jurisdiction by challenging the amount of damages alleged in the complaint, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to show that it is not a legal certainty that the claims do not involve the requisite amount.¹ Id. at 4; Barrett v. Lombardi, 239 F.3d 23, 30-31 (1st Cir.2001). "A party may meet this burden by amending the pleadings or by submitting affidavits." Dep't of Recreation & Sports v. World Boxing Ass'n, 942 F.2d 84, 88 (1st Cir.1991). When there are several plaintiffs, each must present claims that meet the jurisdictional amount.² Clark v. Paul Gray Inc., 306 U.S. 583, 589, 59 S.Ct. 744, 83 L.Ed. 1001 (1939). Once a district court dismisses for failure to meet the jurisdictional amount, the court of appeals reviews that judgment de novo. Spielman, 251 F.3d at 4.

The basic error committed by the district court was to evaluate the amount-in-controversy by reference to amounts that the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has found reasonable in tort cases. As we noted in Stewart, the analogy is imperfect in multiple respects, most notably because Puerto Rico does not have jury trials in civil cases. 356 F.3d at 339. We thus conduct the amount-in-controversy inquiry de novo, looking to each plaintiff individually.

The plaintiffs presented the following evidence in response to Star-Kist's challenge to the amounts alleged in the complaint: the deposition testimony of each of the four plaintiffs, the medical report of Dr. Zegarra (Beatriz's treating physician), hospital records, receipts for the payment of Beatriz's treatment, pictures of Beatriz's hand after the surgery, and the testimony of both the school nurse and the school paramedic who initially treated Beatriz when she cut herself.

This evidence established that after Beatriz cut her pinky finger while opening a can of Star-Kist tuna, she went to the school infirmary. The nurse and a paramedic were able to stop the bleeding after fifteen to thirty minutes. The nurse said that the cut was deep and bled profusely. A school official called Mrs. Ortega at home to tell her about Beatriz's injury, and Mrs. Ortega went to the school to pick up Beatriz. Mrs. Ortega then took Beatriz to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, where a doctor indicated that Beatriz may have severed her tendons and nerves. Mrs. Ortega contacted Dr. Zegarra, a hand surgeon, by phone while she was at the hospital, and scheduled an immediate appointment. Together, Mrs. Ortega and Beatriz went immediately from the hospital to Dr. Zegarra's office.

Dr. Zegarra confirmed that Beatriz had in fact damaged her nerves and tendons and determined that she required surgery. He was unable to secure an operating room for that day, so the surgery was scheduled for April 22, the next day. The surgery, which required Beatriz to be put under general anesthesia, successfully repaired Beatriz's deep flexor tendon and digital nerve. After the surgery, Beatriz attended physical therapy, which was painful, three times a week for a three-month period. Beatriz continued the physical therapy for eight months in total and wore a cast throughout that entire period. The therapy impaired her ability to write and paint in school and forced her to drop out of a volleyball tournament. Her finger bears a small scar and is slightly bent. Despite the successful surgery, Beatriz has been diagnosed with a 3% partial permanent impairment of the functioning of her hand. The medical prognosis is that the injury could become worse as she grows and that she may need more surgery.

Given Beatriz's permanent physical impairment, the surgery, and the claimed pain and suffering (bearing in mind the potential impact of the injury and its aftermath on a young girl), we cannot say to a legal certainty that Beatriz could not recover a jury award larger than $75,000. See Stewart, 356 F.3d at 340 (plaintiffs met jurisdictional minimum where evidence suggested that each had suffered permanent physical impairment, had endured non-trivial pain and suffering damages by having to spend honeymoon in a hospital, and might require future medical services); Gebbia v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 233 F.3d 880, 883 (5th Cir.2000) (plaintiff's allegations that, as a result of falling in defendant's store, she sustained injuries to her wrist, knee and back, resulting in permanent disability and disfigurement and causing pain and suffering and lost wages, were sufficient to meet jurisdictional amount-in-controversy requirement); Rosenboro v. Kim, 994 F.2d 13, 18-19 (D.C.Cir.1993) ("[T]he presence of medical evidence showing that a plaintiff is suffering from a continuing or permanent physical impairment [is] an important indicator" in...