Cite as: 511 U. S. 375 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
equity) in Julian v. Central Trust Co., 193 U. S. 93 (1904): "A bill filed to continue a former litigation in the same court . . . to obtain and secure the fruits, benefits and advantages of the proceedings and judgment in a former suit in the same court by the same or additional parties . . . or to obtain any equitable relief in regard to, or connected with, or growing out of, any judgment or proceeding at law rendered in the same court, . . . is an ancillary suit." Id., at 113-114 (citing 1 C. Bates, Federal Equity Procedure § 97 (1901)).
The doctrine of ancillary jurisdiction can hardly be criticized for being overly rigid or precise, but we think it does not stretch so far as that statement suggests. The expansive language of Julian can be countered by (equally inaccurate) dicta in later cases that provide an excessively limited description of the doctrine. See, e. g., Fulton Nat. Bank of Atlanta v. Hozier, 267 U. S. 276, 280 (1925) ("[N]o controversy can be regarded as dependent or ancillary unless it has direct relation to property or assets actually or constructively drawn into the court's possession or control by the principal suit"). The holding of Julian was not remotely as permissive as its language: Jurisdiction was based upon the fact that the court, in a prior decree of foreclosure, had expressly reserved jurisdiction to adjudicate claims against the judicially conveyed property, and to retake and resell the property if claims it found valid were not paid. 193 U. S., at 109-112.
It is to the holdings of our cases, rather than their dicta, that we must attend, and we find none of them that has, for purposes of asserting otherwise nonexistent federal jurisdiction, relied upon a relationship so tenuous as the breach of an agreement that produced the dismissal of an earlier federal suit. Generally speaking, we have asserted ancillary jurisdiction (in the very broad sense in which that term is sometimes used) for two separate, though sometimes related, purposes: (1) to permit disposition by a single court of claims that are, in varying respects and degrees, factually interde-
379
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007