First & Beck, a Nevada LLC v. Bank of the Southwest

MEMORANDUM *

Plaintiff-Appellant First and Beck, LLC (“F&B”) appeals the district court’s dismissal of its complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Defendants Mortgages, Ltd. (“Mortgages”) and Scott Coles (“Coles”) cross-appeal the district court’s denial of their request for costs and attorneys’ fees, an issue the district court did not reach as a result of its dismissal of the complaint on jurisdictional grounds.

We affirm the district court’s dismissal order in part. We reverse and remand insofar as the district court did not address whether the presence of federal question jurisdiction over one claim against one defendant might cause it to exercise its discretion to assert supplemental jurisdiction over F&B’s state law claims. We also reverse and remand to the district court for consideration of Mortgages’ and Coles’ request for costs and attorneys’ fees.

The district court properly rejected 28 U.S.C. § 1334 (b) as a basis for subject matter jurisdiction over F&B’s complaint. None of F&B’s claims have the necessary “close nexus” to the original bankruptcy action in this case. In re: Pegasus Gold Corp., 394 F.3d 1189, 1194 (9th…