Hart v. Clayton-Parker & Associates, Inc.
United States District Court for the District of Arizona
869 F. Supp. 774 (1994)
After Hart (plaintiff) failed to pay her J.C. Penney credit card balance, the account was assigned to Clayton-Parker & Associates (defendant) for collection. Hart sued Clayton-Parker in federal court under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Arizona debt-collection law, with jurisdiction based solely on the federal question — the parties were not diverse. Clayton-Parker counterclaimed to collect the underlying debt, and Hart moved to dismiss the counterclaim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
Whether a federal court whose jurisdiction rests on a federal question has subject matter jurisdiction over a nondiverse defendant's state-law counterclaim to collect a debt underlying the plaintiff's debt-collection-abuse claim.