Silver Sage Partners, Ltd. v. City of Desert Hot Springs

MEMORANDUM *

The Public Entity Risk Management Authority (“PERMA”) appeals the district court’s grant of Silver Sage Partners, Ltd’s (“Silver Sage”) motion to enforce its judgment against the City of Desert Hot Springs (“the City”) by means of a writ of garnishment. Because the district court lacked supplemental jurisdiction over the action, we reverse and remand. The parties are familiar with the facts, and we will not recite them here.

The district court concluded that it had supplemental jurisdiction over Silver Sage’s motion for a writ of garnishment. We would agree if Silver Sage indeed sought to garnish a debt PERMA owed to the City. 1 On close examination, however, it is clear that there is nothing to garnish. Silver Sage does not claim that PERMA owes anything to the City. 2 Instead, Silver Sage claims that PERMA owes money di *130 rectly to it as a third-party beneficiary of the agreement between PERMA and the City. This is a new theory based not on garnishment but on contract. 3 Accordingly, Peacock v. Thomas governs, 4 and we reverse. Jurisdiction, if it lies, must stem from some other source. Because the other potential source of jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1334 , is…