Jardine Gougis v. Soul Pig Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

JARDINE GOUGIS, Case No. 2:24-cv-01817-SB-PD

Plaintiff,

v.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

SOUL PIG INC. et al.,

Defendants.

Plaintiff Jardine Gougis, who requires the use of a wheelchair at all times when traveling in public, filed this suit alleging that Defendants Soul Pig Inc.’s and Pork Chop and Co. Land Holdings LLC’s facility imposes barriers that impede Plaintiff’s access, 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 her ADA claim, the Court has authority to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the Unruh Act claim under 28 U.S.C. § 367(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 Section 1367(c):

The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a…