U.S. Supreme Court SNYDER v. HARRIS, 394 U.S. 332 (1969) 394 U.S. 332

SNYDER v. HARRIS ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT. No. 109. Argued January 21, 1969. Decided March 25, 1969.*

[Footnote *] Together with No. 117, Gas Service Co. v. Coburn, on certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, argued on January 21-22, 1969.

[Page 394 U.S. 332, 334]

In No. 117, Otto R. Coburn, a resident of Kansas, brought suit in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas against the Gas Service Company, a corporation marketing natural gas in Kansas. Jurisdiction was predicated upon diversity of citizenship. The complaint alleged that the Gas Service Company had billed and illegally collected a city franchise tax from Coburn and others living outside city limits. Coburn alleged damages to himself of only $7.81. Styling his complaint as a class action, however, Coburn sought relief on behalf of approximately 18,000 other Gas Service Company customers living outside of cities. The amount by which other members of the class had been overcharged was, and is, unknown, but the complaint alleged that the aggregation of all these claims would in any event exceed $10,000. The District Court overruled the Gas Company's motion to dismiss for failure to satisfy the jurisdictional amount and, on interlocutory appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed, holding that because of a 1966 amendment to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to class actions, separate and distinct claims brought together in a class action could now be aggregated for the purpose of establishing the jurisdictional amount in diversity cases. 389 F.2d 831. We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict between the position of the Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and the Eighth Circuits and that of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

The first congressional grant to district courts to take suits between citizens of different States fixed the requirement for the jurisdictional amount in controversy at $500.[Footnote 1] In 1887 this jurisdictional amount was increased to $2,000;[Footnote 2] in 1911 to $3,000;[Footnote 3] and in 1958 to $10,000.[Footnote 4]

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parties, was applied to class actions under the then recently passed Federal Rules. In that case numerous individuals, partnerships, and corporations joined in bringing a suit challenging the validity of a California statute which exacted fees of $15 on each automobile driven into the State. Raising the jurisdictional amount question sua sponte, this Court held that the claims of the various fee payers could not be aggregated "where there are numerous plaintiffs having no joint or common interest or title in the subject matter of the suit." 306 U.S., at 588. Nothing in the amended Rule 23 changes this doctrine. The class action plaintiffs in the two cases before us argue that since the new Rule will include in the judgment all members of the class who do not ask to be out by a certain date, the "matter in controversy" now encompasses all the claims of the entire class. But it is equally true that where two or more plaintiffs join their claims under the joinder provisions of Rule 20, each and every joined plaintiff is bound by the judgment. And it was in joinder cases of this very kind that the doctrine that distinct claims could not be aggregated was originally enunciated. Troy Bank v. Whitehead & Co., 222 U.S. 39 (1911); Pinel v. Pinel, 240 U.S. 594 (1916). The fact that judgments under class actions formerly classified as spurious may now have the same effect as claims brought under the joinder provisions is certainly no reason to treat them differently from joined actions for purposes of aggregation.

Any change in the Rules that did purport to effect a change in the definition of "matter in controversy" would clearly conflict with the command of Rule 82 that "[t]hese rules shall not be construed to extend or limit the jurisdiction of the United States district courts . . . ." In Sibbach v. Wilson & Co., this Court held that the rule-making authority was limited by "the inability of a court, by rule, to extend or restrict the jurisdiction

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28 U.S.C. 331.4 It was accepted and promulgated by this Court,[Footnote 5] and, with congressional acquiescence, became the law of the land on July 1, 1966. 28 U.S.C. 2072 (1964 ed., Supp. III). Now the Court, for reasons which in my opinion will not stand analysis, defeats the purpose of the amendment as applied to cases like those before us here and insists upon a perpetuation of distinctions which the profession had hoped would become only curiosities of the past.

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citizenship[Footnote 6] and the later-established grant of a general jurisdiction to consider cases raising federal questions[Footnote 7] - a requirement that the "matter in controversy" exceed a stated amount of money. Congress has never expanded or explained the bare words of these successive jurisdictional amount statutes. Over the years the courts themselves have developed a detailed and complex set of rules for determining when the jurisdictional amount requirements are met.[Footnote 8]

Among these rules is the proposition that multiple parties cannot aggregate their "separate and distinct" claims to reach the jurisdictional amount. E. g., Troy Bank v. Whitehead & Co., 222 U.S. 39, 40 (1911); Oliver v. Alexander, 6 Pet. 143, 147 (1832). Applying that general principle to traditional property law concepts, the courts developed the more specialized rule that multiple parties who asserted very similar legal claims could not aggregate them to make up the jurisdictional amount if their interests, however similar in fact, were in legal theory "several," e. g., Pinel v. Pinel, (1916), but that such aggregation was permissible where the parties claimed undivided interests in a single "joint" right. E. g., Texas & Pacific R. Co. v. Gentry, 163 U.S. 353 (1896); Shields v. Thomas, 17 How. 3 (1855).

This general aggregation rule, and its much later application to class actions,[Footnote 9] rest entirely on judicial decisions,

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not on any Act of Congress. There is certainly no reason the specific application of this body of federal decisional law to class actions should be immune from re-evaluation after a fundamental change in the structure of federal class actions has made its continuing application wholly anomalous.[Footnote 10]

The majority rather half-heartedly suggests that this judicial interpretation of the jurisdictional amount statute is not subject to judicial re-evaluation because Congress by re-enacting the jurisdictional amount statute from time to time has somehow expressed an intent to freeze once and for all the judicial interpretation of the statute. As the majority frankly acknowledges, there are "hazards and pitfalls involved in assuming that re-enactment of certain language by Congress always freezes the existing judicial interpretation of the statutes involved."

While re-enactment may sometimes signify adoption, in my view the appropriate position on the matter is that stated in Girouard v. United States, 328 U.S. 61, 69-70 (1946):

"`It would require very persuasive circumstances enveloping Congressional silence to debar this Court from reexamining its own doctrines.' It is at best treacherous to find in congressional silence alone the adoption of a controlling rule of law. . . . The silence of Congress and its inaction are as consistent with a desire to leave the problem fluid as they are with an adoption by silence of the rule of those cases."[Footnote 11]

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This case, far from being one in which there are "very persuasive circumstances" indicating congressional adoption of prior judicial doctrines, is one where only by the most obvious fiction can congressional re-enactment of a general statute be said to manifest an intention to adopt and perpetuate an existing technical judicial doctrine designed to facilitate administration of the statute.

The hearings and reports on the 1958 statute raising the jurisdictional amount from $3,000 to $10,000 - which the majority fastens on as the adopting re-enactment - include not one word about the whole complex body of rules by which courts determine when the amount is at issue, much less any reference to the particular problem of aggregation of claims in class action cases.[Footnote 12] The

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Under the pre-1966 version of Rule 23 the very availability of the class action device depended on the "joint" or "common" "character of the right sought to be enforced."[Footnote 13] If the right were merely "several," only a "spurious" class action could be maintained and only those members of the class who actually appeared as parties were bound by the judgment.[Footnote 14] It was in this context of a law of class actions already heavily dependent on categorization of interests as "joint" or "several" that the traditional aggregation doctrines were originally applied to class actions under the Federal Rules. In such a context those aggregation doctrines which the majority now perpetuates in the quite different context of the new Rule, whatever their other defects, were at least not anomalous and eccentric.

Scholarly and professional criticism of the "character of interest" classification scheme was vigorous and distinguished.[Footnote 15] Courts as well found the old Rule 23

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categories confusing and unhelpful in making practical decisions. Not only was the categorization difficult,[Footnote 16] but dividing group interests according to whether they were "joint" or "several" did not isolate those cases in which a class action was appropriate from those in which it was not.[Footnote 17] In proposing amendment of Rule 23, the Advisory Committee summed up experience under the old Rule by saying:

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many individuals can be asserted and resolved in a single litigation.

The jurisdictional amount statutes require placing a value on the "matter in controversy" in a civil action. Once it is decided under the new Rule that an action may be maintained as a class action, it is the claim of the whole class and not the individual economic stakes of the separate members of the class which is the "matter in controversy." That this is so is perhaps most clearly indicated by the fact that the judgment in a class action, properly maintained as such, includes all members of the class. Rule 23 (c) (3). This effect of the new Rule in broadening the scope of the "controversy" in a class action to include the combined interests of all the members of the class is illustrated by the facts of No. 117. That class action, if allowed to proceed, would, under the Rule, determine not merely whether the gas company wrongfully collected $7.81 for taxes from Mr. Coburn. It would also result in a judgment which, subject to the limits of due process,[Footnote 18] would determine - authoritatively and not merely as a matter of precedent - the status of the taxes collected from the 18,000 other people allegedly in the class Coburn seeks to represent.[Footnote 19] That being the case, it is hard to understand why the fact that the alleged claims are, in terms of the old Rule categories, "several" rather than "joint," means that the "matter in controversy" for jurisdictional amount purposes must be regarded as the $7.81 Mr. Coburn claims instead of the thousands of dollars of alleged overcharges of the whole class, the status of all of which would be determined by the judgment.

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In past development of rules concerning the jurisdictional amount requirement, the courts have, properly, responded to changes in the procedural and substantive law.[Footnote 20] Now, confronted by an issue of the meaning of the jurisdictional amount requirement arising in the context of a new procedural law of class actions, we should continue to take account of such changes. We should not allow the judicial interpretation of the jurisdictional amount requirement to become petrified into forms which are products of, and appropriate to, another time. To do this would vitiate a significant part of the reform intended to be accomplished by the amendment of Rule 23. For the majority result will continue to make determinative of the maintainability of a class action just that obsolete conceptualism the amended Rule sought to make irrelevant. In this sense, continued adherence to the old aggregation doctrines conflicts with the new Rule and is improper under 28 U.S.C. 2072 (1964 ed., Supp. III). III. Permitting aggregation in class action cases does not involve any violation of the principle, expressed in Rule 82 and inherent in the whole procedure for the

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promulgation and amendment of the Federal Rules, that the courts cannot by rule expand their own jurisdictions. While the Rules cannot change subject-matter jurisdiction, changes in the forms and practices of the federal courts through changes in the Rules frequently and necessarily will affect the occasions on which subject-matter jurisdiction is exercised, because they will in some cases make a difference in what cases the federal courts will hear and who will be authoritatively bound by the judgment.[Footnote 21] For example, the development of the law of joinder and ancillary jurisdiction under the Federal Rules has influenced the "jurisdiction" of the federal courts in this broader sense.[Footnote 22] Indeed, the promulgation of the old Rule 23 provided a new means for resolving in a single federal litigation, based on diversity jurisdiction, the claims of all members of a class, even though some in the class were not of diverse citizenship from parties on the other side.[Footnote 23] Similarly, the creation in a Rule having statutory effect of a new type of class action - one meeting the requirements of the new Rule as to suitability for class-wide resolution,

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there is authorized to be brought in the federal courts a single litigation, in which, both practically and in legal theory, the thing at stake, the "matter in controversy," is the total, combined, aggregated claim of the whole class. When that happens the courts do not obey, but violate, the jurisdictional statutes if they continue to impose ancient and artificial judicial doctrines to fragment what is in every other respect a single claim, which the courts are commanded to stand ready to hear.

For these reasons, I would measure the value of the "matter in controversy" in a class action found otherwise proper under the amended Rule 23 by the monetary value of the claim of the whole class.

[Footnote 1] On the background of the amendment to Rule 23 and its reception, see, e. g., Kaplan, Continuing Work of the Civil Committee: 1966 Amendments of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (I), 81 Harv. L. Rev. 356, 380-386 (1967); Cohn, The New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 54 Geo. L. J. 1204, 1213-1214 (1966); Note, Proposed Rule 23: Class Actions Reclassified, 51 Va. L. Rev. 629, 630-636 (1965). See also 2 W. Barron & A. Holtzoff, Federal Practice and Procedure 561 and n. 15.1 (C. Wright ed. 1968 Pocket Part) (hereinafter cited as Barron & Holtzoff). Even commentators critical of the apparent breadth of the new Rule welcomed abolition of the categories of the old Rule. E. g., Ford, The History and Development of Old Rule 23 and the Development of Amended Rule 23, 32 ABA Antitrust L. J. 254, 257-258 (1966).

[Footnote 2] The majority says broadly, "A large part of those matters involving federal questions can be brought, by way of class actions or otherwise, without regard to the amount in controversy." Ante, at 341. However, in at least one vitally important type of federal

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question case - an action alleging that governmental action, state or federal, violates constitutional limits - the task of demonstrating the existence of federal jurisdiction would in many instances be significantly complicated if 28 U.S.C. 1331 were not available. There are, to be sure, a large number of specific statutory provisions conferring on the federal courts jurisdiction to hear certain types of federal question cases. No doubt many constitutional cases could ultimately be brought within one of these special provisions. However, the pitfalls of seeking to establish federal jurisdiction in a constitutional action against public officials without resort to 28 U.S.C. 1331 are suggested by the diversity of opinions in Hague v. CIO, (1939). Even if 28 U.S.C. 1343 provides a basis for jurisdiction of such an action against state officials, see Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547 (1967); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961), that statute is no help to one challenging purely federal action. Wheeldin v. Wheeler, 373 U.S. 647, 650 and n. 2 (1963). See generally Friedenthal, New Limitations on Federal Jurisdiction, 11 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 216-218 (1959).

[Footnote 3] The Rule, as amended, reads:

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whether they consider the representation fair and adequate, to intervene and present claims or defenses, or otherwise to come into the action; (3) imposing conditions on the representative parties or on intervenors; (4) requiring that the pleadings be amended to eliminate therefrom allegations as to representation of absent persons, and that the action proceed accordingly; (5) dealing with similar procedural matters. The orders may be combined with an order under Rule 16, and may be altered or amended as may be desirable from time to time.

"(e) Dismissal or Compromise. A class action shall not be dismissed or compromised without the approval of the court, and notice of the proposed dismissal or compromise shall be given to all members of the class in such manner as the court directs. (As amended Feb. 28, 1966, eff. July 1, 1966.)"

[Footnote 4] 1965 U.S. Judicial Conf. Proceedings Rep. 52-53. See Kaplan, supra, n. 1, at 357-358.

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Girouard Case and the Reenactment Rule, 59 Harv. L. Rev. 1277 (1946). In Francis v. Southern Pacific Co., 333 U.S. 445, 450 (1948), the majority noted the difficulty of regarding re-enactment as a congressional adoption of existing judicial doctrines, but decided that "in the setting of this case" adoption was implied. The dissent responded:

"[I]f judges make rules of law, it would seem that they should keep their minds open in order to exercise a continuing and helpful supervision over the manner in which their laws serve the public." 333 U.S., at 453.

"I venture the suggestion that it would be shocking to members of Congress, even those who are in closest touch with [the kind of legislation involved], to be told that their `silence' is responsible for application today of a rule which is out of step with the trend of all congressional legislation for more than the past quarter of a century. There are some fields in which congressional committees have such close liaison with agencies in regard to some matters, that it is reasonable to assume an awareness of Congress with relevant judicial and administrative decisions. But I can find no ground for an assumption that Congress has known about the . . . rule [held adopted by re-enactment] and deliberately left it alone because it favored such an archaic doctrine." Id., 465-466.

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