Finley v. United States
United States Supreme Court
490 U.S. 545 (1989)
After her husband and children died in a plane crash, Finley (plaintiff) sued a gas company and the city of San Diego in state court for negligence, and separately sued the FAA in federal court under the FTCA for negligently maintaining airport runway lights. She then moved to amend her federal complaint to add her state-court claims against the gas company and the city, even though the federal court had no independent jurisdictional basis over those parties. The district court granted the motion, asserting pendent-party jurisdiction, but the court of appeals reversed on interlocutory review, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether a federal court may assert pendent-party jurisdiction under the FTCA over additional parties for whom the court has no independent basis of jurisdiction.