EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION, Petitioner v. ALLAPATTAH SERVICES, INC., et al. MARIA del ROSARIO ORTEGA, et al., Petitioners v. STAR-KIST FOODS, INC., 545 U.S. 546

Summary

The circuits were split as to whether a federal court in a diversity action could exercise supplemental jurisdiction over additional plaintiffs whose claims did not satisfy the minimum amount in controversy. The Supreme Court found that, where the other elements of jurisdiction were satisfied and at least one named plaintiff met the amount-in-controversy requirement, § 1367 authorized supplemental jurisdiction over claims of other plaintiffs in the same U.S. Const. art. III case or controversy, even if those claims were for less than the jurisdictional amount. By enacting 28 U.S.C.S. § 1367, Congress overruled prior Supreme Court precedent that had required every plaintiff to separately satisfy the amount-in-controversy requirement. Although § 1367(b) precluded supplemental jurisdiction over claims of plaintiffs joined under Fed. R. Civ. P. 19 or intervenors under Fed. R. Civ. P. 24, nothing in the statute withheld jurisdiction over claims of plaintiffs permissively joined under Fed. ...