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Werner v. Plater Zyberk

Neither Dragonetti Act nor case law barred plaintiff's state-law claims for malicious prosecution and abuse of process arising from defendants' action against plaintiff in federal district court.

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�1 This is an appeal from an order granting the preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer filed by Appellees (J. Plater-Zyberk, Jr., Ph.D., Stephen A. Winston, Esquire, Berger & Montague, P.C., Joseph Posillicio, Esquire, and Synnestvedt & Lechner, L.L.P.) and dismissing the complaint filed by Appellant (Arthur Werner, Esquire). For the reasons set forth below, we reverse, reinstate the complaint, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

�2 The Pennsylvania state court civil action underlying this appeal arose from a prior action filed in federal district court by Appellees. Appellees in the present action alleged in federal court, inter alia, that Appellant and several of his business associates were guilty of violating the federal Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. section 1962(c) & (d). Appellees also asserted several pendent state claims in their federal case. The federal district court dismissed the RICO complaint on February 17, 1998, pursuant to federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a cause of action. All of the parties to the federal action were either natural persons residing in Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania corporations. Thus, once the district court dismissed the RICO count, it lacked any independent federal jurisdiction over the pendent state causes of action. The federal district court, therefore, invoked 28 U.S.C. section 1376(c)(3) and dismissed the entire complaint.*fn2 The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling on November 10, 1999. Plater-Zyberk v. Abraham, 203 F.3d 817 (3d Cir. 1999) (disposition without opinion).

�3 On August 11, 2000, Appellant filed a complaint with the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County naming Appellees, the plaintiffs in the predecessor federal action (the Plater-Zyberk action), as the defendants.

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