Keading v. Keading

Background

Hilja Keading filed an ex parte petition in the probate division of Contra Costa County Superior Court challenging Kenton Keading’s administration of the Keading Family Trust and its subtrusts. The petition sought relief based on state-law theories, including breach of fiduciary duty, physical and financial elder abuse, fraud, conversion, intentional interference with an expected inheritance, and wrongful withholding of trust property. It did not assert a federal cause of action.

The state trial court found for Hilja Keading on elder-abuse and breach-of-fiduciary-duty issues and ordered Kenton Keading to pay damages to the trust. The California appellate court affirmed, and the California Supreme Court denied review. Kenton Keading then sought to vacate the state judgment based on alleged violations of the Fifth Amendment’s due-process guarantee and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection guarantee. He also asserted that Earth Island Institute had been affected because the state court had refused to join it as a defendant. He removed the probate proceeding to federal court, relying on those alleged federal constitutional violations.

Federal-Question Jurisdiction

The court explained that federal-question jurisdiction generally exists only when a federal issue appears on the face of the plaintiff’s properly pleaded complaint or petition. The plaintiff’s original petition alleged only state-law claims. Kenton Keading’s constitutional arguments were based on his anticipated defense and his challenge to the state court’s handling of the case. A federal defense does not establish removal jurisdiction, so the petition did not support federal-question jurisdiction.

Rooker-Feldman Doctrine

The court also held that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine independently defeated jurisdiction. That doctrine prevents a federal district court from acting as an appeals court over a final state-court judgment. Because the removal was based on Kenton Keading’s effort to vacate a final state judgment that had been affirmed on appeal, the federal court could not hear the challenge.

Disposition

Judge Jacquelyn Corley ordered that the matter be REMANDED to the Contra Costa County Superior Court. The order did not decide the merits of the parties’ trust-related claims.