Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Before
Lynch, Chief Judge,
Souter, Associate Justice,* and
Selya, Circuit Judge.
superior court, and was removed based on federal claims under the
Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
between
Maine's
Anti-SLAPP
statute,
Me.
Rev.
Stat.
Reynolds
allegedly knew, or should have known, that these reports were false
because he also attends these meetings and knows that Desjardins
rarely drinks.
damaged his reputation and caused the Sheriff's Department to redflag Desjardins and pull his car over without cause.
In August 2013, Desjardins brought suit in Cumberland
County Superior Court. The heart of this case is Desjardins' state
law claims for defamation and false light invasion of privacy.2
He
affirm
the
dismissal
of
the
federal
claims.
traffic
stop:
the
most
that
the
complaint
Desjardins
fails to state
F.3d 226, 233-34 (1st Cir. 2012) (quoting URI Student Senate v.
Town of Narragansett, 631 F.3d 1, 10 (1st Cir. 2011)) (holding that
to state a Due Process claim based on stigmatization, a party must
allege "stigma-plus" -- "'an adverse effect on some interest more
tangible than reputational harm'" that is "'directly attributable'"
to, and derives from the same source as, the challenged action
(quoting URI, 631 F.3d at 9-10)).
II.
This leaves only the state law claims.
Where a federal
court has dismissed the anchoring federal claims over which it has
original
jurisdiction,
the
court
"may
decline
to
exercise
decline supplemental jurisdiction depends on a "pragmatic and casespecific evaluation of a variety of considerations," including "the
interests of fairness, judicial economy, convenience, and comity."
Camelio, 137 F.3d at 672.
The district court faced competing considerations as to
retention of jurisdiction that differ somewhat from those now
before us.
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defendant Donald Willard, the state claims against whom the court
found were readily dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6).
The district
As a
basis for removal here have been dismissed "well before trial," and
the remaining state law claims against Reynolds "raise substantial
questions of state law that are best resolved in state court." Id.
In light of these factors, we hold now -- as we did then -- that
the surviving state law claims should be remanded to state court
where they began.
Humana Ins. of P.R., Inc., 748 F.3d 387, 392 (1st Cir. 2014) ("The
Supreme Court has made pellucid 'that in the usual case in which
all federal-law claims are eliminated before trial, the balance of
issues are better resolved by the state courts, where this case
began.
(quoting United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726
(1966)).
constitutions.
We affirm the dismissal of the federal claims and all
claims as to Willard, with prejudice.
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