Jurisdiction (Subject Matter)

• Author: International Law Group

In February 1995, James Slater (plaintiff) and Gloria Biehl (defendant) got into a two-car accident in the District of Columbia. Biehl's automobile bore diplomatic tags. About three years later, plaintiff sued defendant in the D. C. Superior Court claiming Biehl's negligence caused the accident. In March 1998, defendant filed an answer to plaintiff's complaint denying each and every allegation in it. It did not, however, challenge the court's jurisdiction. Three months later, the Assistant chief of Protocol of the U.S. State Department issued a Certificate of Diplomatic Status with respect to defendant.

Based on the Certificate, defendant promptly moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction over her as a diplomat. After a hearing, the trial court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. s. 1351. That Section provides that "[t]he district courts shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all civil actions and proceedings against -- (1) consuls or vice consuls of foreign states; or (2) members of a mission or members of their families (as such terms are defined in section 2 of the Diplomatic Relations Act [22 U.S.C. Section 254a]." [emphasis added by Court].

Plaintiff appealed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In affirming the lower court, that Court defines the central question for decision as whether Section 1351 refers to the subject matter jurisdiction of a state court or merely to that court's personal jurisdiction over a diplomat. In plaintiff's view, the statute relates only to personal jurisdiction over defendant and defendant had waived that defense by omitting to timely raise it in her first pleading. [N.B. The appellate court assumes that the District of Columbia is a "state" within the meaning of Section 1351, neither party having contended otherwise.]

Axiomatically, a court of first instance cannot act without jurisdiction over the person and the subject matter. On the one hand, personal jurisdiction is a privilege of the defendant, waived if not properly invoked. Jurisdiction of the subject matter, on the other hand, is an absolute limitation on the power of a court to decide a particular type of case and cannot be waived. The D. C. Superior Court has subject matter jurisdiction over any civil action brought in the District of Columbia unless Congress has vested exclusive jurisdiction in a federal court.

The Court finds the language of the...