Dennis Cooper v. Rojas Lopez

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

DENNIS COOPER, Case No. 5:25-cv-00112-SB-SHK

Plaintiff,

v. ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

RAFAELA ROJAS LOPEZ,

Defendant.

Plaintiff Dennis Cooper, who is paraplegic, filed this suit alleging that Defendant failed to provide adequate parking facilities, in violation of, inter alia, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Unruh Act. Dkt. No. 1.

Because Plaintiff’s Unruh Act claim is closely related to his ADA claim, the Court has authority to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the Unruh Act claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). However, supplemental jurisdiction “is a doctrine of discretion, not of plaintiff’s right,” and district courts “can decline to exercise jurisdiction over pendent claims for a number of valid reasons.” City of Chi. v. Int’l Coll. of Surgeons, 522 U.S. 156, 172 (1997) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). This discretion is codified in § 1367(c):

The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim under subsection (a) if— (1) the claim raises a novel or complex issue of State law, (2) the claim…