OPINION AND ORDER
Plаintiffs, Medicare Part B claimants, have moved for reargument of the motions decided by this Court in its October 11, 1995, Opinion & Order in
Walsh v. McGee,
*109 BACKGROUND
In the action underlying the instant motion to reargue, plaintiffs alleged that defendants mishandled plaintiffs’ respective Medicare Part B claims, and, consequently, violated plaintiffs’ respective procedural due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Walsh,
Plaintiffs advance two points in support of the instant motion. First, plaintiffs contend that the instant motion should be granted because plaintiffs claim that this Court overlooked “its own earlier opinion which firmly declared that plaintiffs have stated a claim for violation of procedural due process....” (Plaintiffs Memorandum in Support of Motion for Reargument and Reconsideration (Plaintiffs Memo”) 2 (Oct. 19, 1995).) Plaintiffs explain that when plaintiffs first filed this ease, the Government moved to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Id.; see October 30, 1991, Order, Walsh v. McGee, 89 Civ. 1310 (“1991 Order”). In response to this motion, this Court found that plaintiffs’ allegations were “sufficient to state a violation of procedural due process, which is a claim upon which this Court may grant relief,” and this Court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss. Id.
According to plaintiffs’ interpretation of the above-quoted language, this Court’s 1991 Order acknowledged that “this Court plainly has jurisdiction over Constitutional claims arising under Part B of the Medicare Act.” (Plaintiffs’ Memo at 2.) Plaintiffs continue that “[i]t is therefore the law of the case that plaintiffs have stated a claim for relief based on a substantial claim for violation of procedural due process,” which is “undeniably sufficient to confer federal jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims.... ” Id. at 4 (emphasis in original). They conclude that this Court’s 1995 Opinion “totally overlooks and neglects” this Court’s 1991 Order, and that this oversight merits reargumеnt pursuant to Local Rule 3(j). Id. at 3-4.
Second, plaintiffs assert that this Court’s 1995 Opinion unfairly criticized plaintiffs counsel. Id. at 2, 5. Plaintiffs highlight a portion of the 1995 Opinion in which this Court noted that plaintiffs’ counsel failed to cite relevant case law in support of his argument that this Court had federal question jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims, and he failed to distinguish the case law that defendants cited in support of defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject mattеr jurisdiction. Id. at 5-6. In response to this Court’s criticism, plaintiffs’ counsel proffers two explanations: (1) he “relied on the Court’s earlier decision which made clear that [none of the case law upon which the Court relied in its 1995 Opinion] was relevant,” id. at 5; and (2) he cited one case twice — once in a footnote in plaintiffs’ Reply Brief, “in connection with the issue of mandamus, in response to defendant’s reliance on that dеcision,” id. at 5-6, and once in plaintiffs’ 1989 memorandum in opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Id. at 5-6. Plaintiffs conclude that this Court overlooked plaintiffs’ aforementioned citations, that this Court’s “personal criticism of plaintiffs’ counsel is patently unfair,” and that this Court therefore should grant plaintiffs’ motion to reargue. Id. at 5-6.
In response to plaintiffs’ claims, defendants advance three counterarguments. First, defendants characterize plaintiffs’ claim that this Court “overlooked” its previous order as “mistaken,” because “there is no inconsistency between the Court’s two orders.” (Defendants’ Memo at 2.) Defendants inform the Court that at the time defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), *110 defendants neither raised a jurisdictional challenge to plaintiffs’ complaint, id. аt 6, nor moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Id. at 2. Defendants continue, however, that when the parties subsequently cross-moved for summary judgment, defendants did raise the defense of lack of subject matter jurisdiction, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1). Id. at 3. Defendants thus argue that this Court’s 1991 Order and 1995 Opinion are not inconsistent because they addressed different elements of plaintiffs’ complaint at different stages of this Court’s proceedings. Id. at 2, 4, 6.
Second, defendants maintain that even if there is an inconsistency between the Court’s two orders, plaintiffs’ law of the case argument is flawed for two reasons. Defendants assert that the law of the case doctrine is inapplicable to questions of subject matter jurisdiction. Id. at 5. They maintain that this Court had an obligation to dismiss plaintiffs’ case whenever this Court became aware that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction, regardless of any prior ruling. Id. at 5-6. Consequently, defendants conclude that even if the 1991 Order and the 1995 Opinion were inconsistent, “the Court did not abuse its discretion in holding that it lacked jurisdiction ...” in its 1991 Opinion. Id. at 5.
In addition, defendants contend that the law of the case doctrine is applicable only to issues previously placed before the court. According to defendants, plaintiffs did not raise the argument that the law of the case doctrine forеclosed defendants’ jurisdictional challenge in the papers plaintiffs’ submitted on the underlying cross-motions for summary judgment. Id. at 3. Consequently, defendants argue that plaintiffs are not entitled to raise their law of the case claim for the first time in their Local Rule 3(j) motion. Id. at 3-4.
Finally, defendants briefly address plaintiffs’ objection regarding this Court’s criticism of plaintiffs’ counsel. According to defendants, “[t]his question has no impact on the merits of this motion,” because plaintiffs have failed to explain why the relevant Medicare Part B case law does not foreclose their challenge. Id. at 6 n. 1.
DISCUSSION
Plaintiffs predicate their motion to rear-gue the issues decided by this Court in its 1995 Opinion on Local Rule 3(j). Local Rule 3(j) states in relevant part that “there shall be served -with the notice of motion [for reargument] a memorandum setting forth concisely the matters or controlling decisions which counsel believes the court has overlooked.”
In order to succeed on a motion to reargue under Local Rule 3(j), the moving party must demonstrate that the Court overlooked the controlling decisions or factual matters that were put before the Court in the underlying motion.
In re Houbigant, Inc.,
After examining the claims that plaintiffs advance in support of their motion for rear-gument, this Court finds that neither claim fits the narrow categories of claims eligible for reargument as set forth above.
I. Plaintiffs’ Law of the Case Claim is Mer-itless
Plaintiffs’ assert that this Court’s 1991 Order constitutes the law of the case, that this *111 Court’s 1995 Opinion “overlooks and neglects” the law of the case as contained in the 1991 Order, and that this oversight merits reargument pursuant to Local Rule 3(j). (Plaintiffs’ Memo at 2-4.) Before addressing the merits of this claim, a brief discussion of the law of the case doctrine is helpful.
The law of the case doctrine has “developed to maintain consistency and avoid reconsideration of matters once decided during the course of a single lawsuit.” 18 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure § 4478, at 788 (1981); see
Weitzman v. Stein,
This Court recently noted that “[t]he most distinctive law of the ease rules are those that justify refusal by a trial court to reconsider matters once resolved in a continuing proceeding.”
Weitzman,
Rule 12(b)(1) concerns a federal court’s “lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1). Because “[f]ederal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction,” they have power to adjudicate “only those cases within the bounds of Article III and the United States Constitution and Congressional enactments stemming therefrom.”
Walsh,
In contrast, Rule 12(b)(6) is designed “to test the formal sufficiency of the statement of the claim for relief.” 5A Wright & Miller, § 1356, at 294. In evaluating a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, “the court must accept the material facts alleged in the complaint as true,”
Cohen v. Koenig,
The foregoing discussion confirms that Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) address different aspects of а party’s claim, are evaluated under different standards by the courts, and are subject to different rules concerning timing and waiver. Plaintiffs’ claim that this Court’s 1991 Order regarding a Rule 12(b)(6) motion should control this Court’s later resolution of a 12(b)(1) motion ignores these differences. It further ignores the large body of uniform federal case law recognizing that these two Rules are separate and distinct.
See, e.g., City of Kenosha v. Bruno,
Second, plaintiffs’ law of the case argument is flawed because plaintiffs have misapplied the legal principles of the law of the case doctrine. As previously mentioned, this Court’s 1991 Order and its 1995 Opinion neither addressed nor decided the same issues. Because “[t]he law of the case comes into play only with respect to issues previously determined,”
Quern,
Plaintiffs’ law of the case claim also fails because questions of subject matter jurisdiction are generally exempt from law of the case principles. 18 Wright, Miller & Cooper, § 4478, at 799 & n. 32. It is elementary that a federal court cannot create jurisdiction where none exists. 5A Wright & Miller § 1350, at 204-05. Thus, a federal court cannot assert jurisdiction over a claim that is outside the scope of the court’s jurisdiction merely by relying on the court’s own prior decision that jurisdiction over such claim was proper. On the contrary, as Justice Scalia has explained, “it is a Court’s
obligation
to dismiss a case
whenever
it becomes convinced that it has no proper jurisdiction, no matter how late that wisdom may arrive.”
Wyoming v. Oklahoma,
Finally, plaintiffs’ law of the ease claim is also meritless because plaintiffs have violated Local Rule 3(j). A party moving for reargument pursuant to Local Rule 3(J) “may not advance new facts, issues or arguments not previously presented to the court,”
Litton Indus.,
II. Plaintiffs Are Mistaken that this Court’s 1995 Opinion Unfairly Criticized Plaintiffs’ Counsel
Plaintiffs’ second claim in support of their Local Rule 3(j) motion is equally unavailing. To reiterate, this Court’s 1995 Opinion criticized plaintiffs’ counsel for failing to cite relеvant case law in support of his argument that this Court had federal question jurisdiction over plaintiffs claims, and for failing to distinguish the ease law upon which defendants’ relied in support of defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
Walsh,
First, plaintiffs contend that plaintiffs’ counsel did not cite relevant case law to this Court because plaintiffs’ counsel “relied on the Court’s earlier decision which made clear that [none of the case law upon which the Court relied in its 1995 Opinion] was relevant.” (Plaintiffs’ memo at 5.) As stated above, the 1991 Order resolved defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, which was an issue entirely separate from and unrelated to the issue of subject matter jurisdiction. E.g., 5A Wright & Miller, § 1350, at 196. Moreover, nowhere in this Court’s one-page 1991 Order did this Court mention the issue of subject matter jurisdiction. Consequently, this Court finds that plaintiffs’ contention is devoid of merit.
Second, plaintiffs claim that plaintiffs’ counsel actually did cite relevant ease law to this Court. The 1995 Opinion criticized plaintiffs’ counsel twice. First, at the end of the discussion concerning federal question jurisdiction оver challenges to Medicare Part B claims, the 1995 Opinion states:
Careful review of plaintiffs’ papers reveals that plaintiffs failed to cite any relevant Medicare case law in opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Similarly, plaintiffs cited no authority that contradicts or limits Kuritzky’s rule that federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over challenges to the appliсation or interpretation of Part B regulations. Remarkably, plaintiffs made no attempt to distinguish Kuritzky and the other relevant Second Circuit case law in their Reply memo, despite defendants’ reliance on this case to support defendants’ jurisdictional argument.
Walsh,
The result in this case should come as no surprise to plaintiffs’ counsel. Plaintiffs’ counsel previously served as counsel in a very similar Medicare Part B challenge that the Second Circuit dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the same grounds as those controlling in this case. Anderson v. Bowen,881 F.2d 1 (2d Cir.1989), aff 'g, No. 87-4048, slip. op. (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 17, 1988). Remarkably, counsel neglected to cite Anderson or any of the *114 other relevant case law previously mentioned. Counsel further failed to respond to defendant’s reliance on these cases in support of defendants’ 12(b)(1) motion. In light of counsel’s familiarity with this area of Medicare law, and his persоnal knowledge of Anderson, this Court is puzzled by counsel’s failure to cite these cases.
Id. at 1240.
In response, plaintiffs assert that:
“the Court overlooks that plaintiffs counsel twice cited the Anderson case. First, plaintiffs specifically cited the Anderson case at p. 16 of its 1993 Reply Brief, in support of its Third Claim for Relief.
In addition, plaintiffs cited Anderson at p. 24, n. 13 of the Memorandum in Opposition dated October 30,1989, to defendants’ prior motion to dismiss.”
(Plaintiffs’ Memo at 5-6 (emphasis in original).)
Plaintiffs’ claim neither changes the fact that counsel’s performance in the underlying motion was lacking, nor supports plaintiffs’ Local Rule 3(j) claim. The quoted portions of this Court’s 1995 Opinion criticize plaintiffs counsel for failing to cite two specific
cases—Kuritzky
and Anderson—as well as “other relevant case law.”
Walsh,
Moreover, plaintiffs demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of this Court’s 1995 Opinion when they note that counsel had cited
Anderson
in a brief submitted to this Court on an entirely different motion several years before the instant motion was submitted to this Court. The 1995 Opinion criticizes counsel for failing to cite relevant cаse law in the papers he submitted regarding the cross-motions for summary judgment.
Walsh,
Finally, plaintiffs’ claim that this Court’s 1995 Opinion unfairly criticized plaintiffs’ counsel violates Local Rule 3(j) for two different reasons. First, as discussed above, a party moving for reargument pursuant to Local Rule 3(j) “may not advance new facts, issues or arguments not previously presented to the court,”
Litton Indus.,
Second, to succeed on a motion to reargue pursuant to Local Rule 3(j), the moving party must demonstrate that the Court overlooked controlling decisions or factual matters that were put before the court on the underlying motion.
Houbigant,
CONCLUSION
Plaintiffs’ Local Rule 3(j) motion is DENIED.
SO ORDERED.