Zichy v. City of Philadelphia
Decision Date | 16 December 1977 |
Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 72-1810. |
Parties | Kathleen ZICHY and Jane E. Schofer v. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Susan C. Nicholas, Alice M. Price, Harriet N. Katz, Women's Law Project, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiffs.
John M. McNally, Jr., Asst. City Sol., Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant.
Originally, plaintiffs brought this action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the defendants discriminated against them on the basis of sex by denying them use of accrued sick leave for maternity-related absences. On March 19, 1975, this Court entered summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. Defendants appealed from this order. As the Supreme Court rendered its decision in General Electric v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343 (1976), during the time that this case was pending appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed this Court's judgment, and remanded the case for consideration of plaintiffs' motion to amend the pleadings. While recognizing that it is unfortunate that the plaintiffs are caught in the wake of the Gilbert decision, this Court feels compelled to deny the plaintiffs' motion to amend.
The plaintiffs seek to amend their complaint pursuant to Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to add a claim of discrimination under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 Pa.S. § 955. While Rule 15 provides that leave to amend the complaint "shall be freely given when justice so requires," limitations have been placed on this policy of liberality. The Supreme Court in Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962), described the permissible reasons for denying a motion to amend as:
If plaintiffs were permitted to amend their complaint to add a claim of discrimination under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, this Court would dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. As there would be no independent basis for federal court jurisdiction, the only way this Court could obtain jurisdiction over this state law claim would be on a theory of pendent jurisdiction. When a court is requested to take pendent jurisdiction over a state law question, there are two questions that must be answered. One question is a question of power and the other question is one of discretion.
Addressing the question of power first, this Court doubts whether it would have the power to assume pendent jurisdiction over the state law claim. A federal court has the power to hear a state law claim when substantial federal issues exist and the plaintiff's claims, without regard to their federal or state character, "are such that he would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial proceeding." United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1138, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). At this point, the federal claims in this litigation have been dismissed by the Court of Appeals; thus, it would seem that there are no substantial federal claims which could be tied to the state law claims. Under the mandate of Gibbs, the non-existence of the state law claims might lead to the conclusion that the Court does not have the power now to assume jurisdiction over the state law claims. The present case before this Court appears to involve a very different situation than the one where a federal court originally assumes pendent jurisdiction over a state law claim on the basis that there exists a related substantial federal claim and then, later in the action, the federal claim is dismissed. In that type of case, it seems that the court, indeed, would have the power to retain the state law claim. Rosado v. Wyman, 397 U.S. 397, 90 S.Ct. 1207, 25 L.Ed.2d 442 (1970).
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Zichy v. City of Philadelphia
...plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint, declining to exercise pendent jurisdiction over the state claim. Zichy v. City of Philadelphia, 444 F.Supp. 344 (E.D.Pa.1977). Plaintiffs appealed that decision and argued on appeal that the previous decision of the Court of Appeals was overly br......
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Zichy v. City of Philadelphia
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