Mulligan v. Henniker, Town of, et al

Filing 5

///ORDER granting in part and denying in part 3 Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim. Clerk shall enter judgment accordingly on the federal claim, Count IV, and remand the case to Merrimack County Superior Court. So Ordered by Judge Joseph A. DiClerico, Jr.(gla)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE
DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lorin D. Mulligan
v.

Civil No. 12-cv-392-JD

Town of Henniker, N.H., et al.
0 R D E R

Lorin D. Mulligan brought suit in state court, alleging
state and federal claims against the Town of Henniker, the
Cogswell Springs Waterworks, and Norman Bumford, superintendent
of Cogswell Springs Waterworks.

Her claims arose from the town's

use and alteration of an access way across Mulligan's property to
a water tank owned by the town.

The defendants removed the case

to this court based on Mulligan's claim brought pursuant to 42

u.s.c.

§

1983.

The defendants then moved to dismiss Mulligan's

§

1983 claim

as unripe and asked the court to decline supplemental
jurisdiction as to the state law claims and dismiss them without
prejudice.

In response, Mulligan agrees that her

§

1983 claim is

unripe and that the court should decline supplemental
jurisdiction over the state law claims.

Mulligan objects to

dismissal of her state claims, however, and asks the court to
remand the remainder of the case to state court.
The parties agree that Mulligan's
should be dismissed without prejudice.

§

1983 claim is unripe and
Therefore, without

considering the merits of the claim, the court will dismiss it
without prejudice.
Once the claims that conferred federal jurisdiction are
dismissed, the court may decline to exercise jurisdiction over
the remaining claims.

28 U.S.C.

§

1367(c) (3).

Declining

jurisdiction is encouraged when the federal claims are dismissed
at an early stage of the litigation.

Rodriguez v. Doral Mortg.

Corp., 57 F.3d 1168, 1177 (1st Cir. 1995).

Further, when the

court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state
claims in a removed case, the court may remand the case to state
court instead of dismissing the claims without prejudice.
Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 357 (1988).
It is appropriate to decline to exercise supplemental
jurisdiction over Mulligan's state claims in this case and to
remand the case to Merrimack County Superior Court.

Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the defendants' motion to dismiss
(document no. 3) is granted in part and denied in part.

The

plaintiff's federal claim, Count IV, is dismissed without
prejudice based on the parties' agreement that the claim be
dismissed as unripe.

The court declines to exercise supplemental

jurisdiction over the plaintiff's remaining claims, based on
state law.

2

The clerk of court shall enter judgment accordingly on the
federal claim, Count IV, and remand the case to Merrimack County
Superior Court.
SO ORDERED.

•
A. DiClerico, Jr.
States District
November 8, 2012
cc:

Mark_P. Hodgdon, Esq.
Andrew R. Schulman, Esq.

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