Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/857/1300/115015/
Timestamp: 2019-10-17 16:14:57
Document Index: 504225502

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', 'art, 42', '§ 1988', '§ 1983']

Gerald Bateson, Plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant, v. P. William Geisse; Michael Cucciardi; Jim Gonzales;walter Persoma, Jr.; Marion Dozier; John Michunovich; C.dale Vermillion; and City of Billings, a Municipalcorporation, Defendants-appellants/cross-appellees, 857 F.2d 1300 (9th Cir. 1988) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1988 › Gerald Bateson, Plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant, v. P. William Geisse; Michael Cucciardi; Jim Gon...
Gerald Bateson, Plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant, v. P. William Geisse; Michael Cucciardi; Jim Gonzales;walter Persoma, Jr.; Marion Dozier; John Michunovich; C.dale Vermillion; and City of Billings, a Municipalcorporation, Defendants-appellants/cross-appellees, 857 F.2d 1300 (9th Cir. 1988)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 857 F.2d 1300 (9th Cir. 1988) Argued and Submitted June 9, 1988. Decided Sept. 20, 1988
On June 25, 1984, the City Council initiated a zone change on Bateson's property which would prevent him from building the proposed project. The City Attorney advised the City Council that "if the city act [ed] to deny the building permit or to initiate rezoning to make the proposed project improper or illegal, there [would be a] substantial probability that the Court would overturn that action. There [would also be] a substantial risk that the Court would hold the city liable for damages resulting from the delay of the project."
The City Council voted to withhold issuing Bateson's building permit although all requirements had been satisfied. Thereafter, Bateson brought this lawsuit, alleging a deprivation of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.1 Specifically, Bateson alleged that the appellants, acting under color of state law, wrongfully withheld issuance of a building permit after it had been properly approved and utilized the municipal subdivision platting ordinances to prevent Bateson from using his property. Additionally, Bateson alleged that the appellants' actions constituted an inverse condemnation of his right to use the property in accordance with the zoning laws' permissible uses.
The district court concluded that the appellants' refusal to issue Bateson's building permit, after Bateson had satisfied all the requirements made on the permit, was an arbitrary and capricious action which deprived Bateson of his substantive due process rights. We review de novo the district court's determination of questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact which implicate constitutional rights. LaDuke v. Nelson, 762 F.2d 1318, 1322 (9th Cir. 1985), modified, 796 F.2d 309 (1986).
A substantive due process claim does not require proof that all use of the property has been denied, Herrington v. County of Sonoma, 834 F.2d 1488, 1498 (9th Cir. 1988), but rather that the interference with property rights was irrational or arbitrary. Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1, 15, 96 S. Ct. 2882, 2892, 49 L. Ed. 2d 752 (1976). Bateson was not required to seek "just compensation" from state entities before bringing this substantive due process claim, and therefore this claim is ripe for adjudication. Rutherford v. City of Berkeley, 780 F.2d 1444, 1447 (9th Cir. 1986) (because substantive due process is violated at the moment the harm occurs, the existence of post deprivation state remedies does not bar a Sec. 1983 action).
Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Bateson can recover for this constitutional tort only if "the action that is alleged to be unconstitutional implements or executes a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by [the local governing body's] officers," Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 690, 98 S. Ct. 2018, 56 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1977), and causes the constitutional violation. In addition to seeking redress from the individual city council members for their decision to arbitrarily withhold Bateson's building permit, "a municipality may be held liable under Sec. 1983 for a single decision by its properly constituted legislative body--whether or not that body had taken similar action in the past or intended to do so in the future--because even a single decision by such a body unquestionably constitutes an act of official government policy." Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 480, 106 S. Ct. 1292, 89 L. Ed. 2d 452 (1986).
The individual city council members comprising the City of Billings' "properly constituted legislative body" made the single decision to withhold issuing Bateson's building permit. Considering that this decision selected "a course of action tailored to a particular situation and [was] not intended to control decisions in later situations," and that it was "properly made by [the] government's authorized decision makers, it surely represents an act of official government 'policy' as that term is commonly understood." Id. at 481, 106 S. Ct. at 1299.
Additionally, this municipal policy caused Bateson's injury because it was "the moving force of the constitutional violation." City of Oklahoma v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 819-20, 105 S. Ct. 2427, 2434, 85 L. Ed. 2d 791 (1985), quoting Polk Co. v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 326, 102 S. Ct. 445, 454, 70 L. Ed. 2d 509 (1981). " [T]he requisite causal connection can be established not only by some kind of direct personal participation in the deprivation but also by setting in motion a series of acts by others which the actor knows or reasonably should know would cause others to inflict the constitutional injury." Merritt v. Mackey, 827 F.2d 1368, 1371 (9th Cir. 1987), quoting Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743-44 (9th Cir. 1978).
Accordingly we find that the city council's decision to arbitrarily withhold Bateson's building permit "may fairly be said to represent official policy," Pembaur, 475 U.S. at 480, 106 S. Ct. at 1298, and acted as the "moving force" behind Bateson's constitutional injury. Consequently, the City of Billings, as well as the individual city council members, are liable for Bateson's constitutional injury.
The City of Billings has no immunity from lawsuits resulting from their constitutional torts. Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 657, 100 S. Ct. 1398, 1418-19, 63 L. Ed. 2d 673 (1979). As a result, the City is not shielded from liability for the city council's decision to arbitrarily withhold Bateson's building permit.
With regard to the individual city council members' immunity from suit, the executive, rather than legislative, nature of their decision to arbitrarily withhold Bateson's building permit precludes any absolute immunity for their constitutional tort. Kuzinich v. County of Santa Clara, 689 F.2d 1345, 1349-50 (9th Cir. 1982). This decision neither applied to the general community, nor involved the promulgation of legislative policy as a defined and binding rule of conduct. Cinevision Corp. v. City of Burbank, 745 F.2d 560, 579-80 (9th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1054, 105 S. Ct. 2115, 85 L. Ed. 2d 480 (1985). Rather, it was directed specifically and solely at a single individual: Gerald Bateson. " [A]n act which applies generally to the community is a legislative one, while an act directed at one or a few individuals is an executive one." Id. at 579. Accordingly, the individual city council members are not absolutely immune from suit for this executive action.
The city council members also claim that their qualified immunity protects them from this suit. We review the district court's denial of their claim of immunity very narrowly, limiting our inquiry to determining a question of law: "whether the legal norms allegedly violated by the [appellants] were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S. Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L. Ed. 2d 411 (1984). "The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Schwartzman v. Valenzuela, 846 F.2d 1209, 1211 (9th Cir. 1988), quoting Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S. Ct. 3034, 3038-39, 97 L. Ed. 2d 523 (1987). Thus, whether the city council members are immune "turns on the objective reasonableness of their conduct in light of clearly established law, not on their subjective good faith." Lowe v. City of Monrovia, 775 F.2d 998, 1011 (9th Cir. 1985).
We conclude that the city council members' actions were not objectively reasonable and preclude their use of qualified immunity against this suit. By 1984 when the council members decided to withhold Bateson's permit, this court had made clear that a statutory scheme which placed "significant substantive restrictions" on the decision to grant a permit or license would be sufficient to confer due process rights. See Parks v. Watson, 716 F.2d 646, 657 (9th Cir. 1983); Jacobson v. Hannifin, 627 F.2d 177, 180 (9th Cir. 1980). Of course, the general contours of substantive due process that prohibit arbitrary and capricious government action had been defined long before. See, e.g., Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 263, 97 S. Ct. 555, 562, 50 L. Ed. 2d 450 (1977) (right to be free from arbitrary or irrational zoning actions).
Prior to 1984, other circuits had been even more specific on the question of substantive due process. They recognized that the fourteenth amendment prohibits arbitrary or capricious denial of a land use permit when the applicant has a protectable property interest in the permit. See Scott v. Greenville County, 716 F.2d 1409, 1418-20 (4th Cir. 1983); Scudder v. Town of Greendale, Ind., 704 F.2d 999, 1002 (7th Cir. 1983); Southern Co-op Development Fund v. Driggers, 696 F.2d 1347, 1356 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1208, 103 S. Ct. 3539, 77 L. Ed. 2d 1389 (1983); see also Nectow v. Cambridge, 277 U.S. 183, 48 S. Ct. 447, 72 L. Ed. 842 (1928).
Bateson alleges that the appellants deviated from the State statutory scheme and imposed municipal subdivision ordinance requirements on his amended plat application in a manner which violated his procedural due process rights. The district court dismissed this claim, finding that Bateson had not sufficiently alleged a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to invoke federal subject matter jurisdiction. We review the existence of subject matter jurisdiction de novo. Peter Starr Production Co. v. Twin Continental Films, Inc., 783 F.2d 1440, 1442 (9th Cir. 1986). A district court's factual findings on a jurisdictional issue must be accepted unless they are clearly erroneous. Bruce v. United States, 759 F.2d 755, 758 (9th Cir. 1985).
To state a procedural due process claim, Bateson must establish that he had a protectible property interest in his proposed minor plat application and, if so, that he was denied this property right without the process which was due under the circumstances. "A property interest in a benefit protected by the due process clause results from a 'legitimate claim of entitlement' created and defined by an independent source, such as a state or federal law." Parks v. Watson, 716 F.2d 646, 656 (9th Cir. 1983), quoting Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S. Ct. 2701, 2709, 33 L. Ed. 2d 548 (1972).
The district court concluded that Bateson failed to show that state or local law created an entitlement to approval of the proposed minor plat. The applicable municipal ordinance, Sec. 23-404, specifically authorizes the City Council to approve, conditionally approve or reject a minor plat. Like the statute at issue in Jacobson v. Hannifin, 627 F.2d 177 (9th Cir. 1980), which granted to the Nevada Gaming Commission "full and absolute authority to deny any application for any cause deemed reasonable by such commission," this ordinance leaves the decision of how to handle a minor plat application to the "unbridled discretion of an agency." Parks v. Watson, 716 F.2d at 657. Therefore, because of the lack of any significant substantive restrictions on the City Council's powers, we affirm the district court's conclusion that Bateson did not have a legitimate claim of entitlement to approval of his minor plat application.
"The Fifth Amendment does not proscribe the taking of property: it proscribes taking without just compensation." Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. at 194 [105 S. Ct. 3108 at 3120-21, 87 L. Ed. 2d 126 (1985) ]. "If the government has provided an adequate process for obtaining compensation, and if resort to that process 'yield [s] just compensation,' then the property owner 'has no claim against the Government for a taking.' " Id. at 195, 105 S. Ct. at 3121. (quotations omitted).
The Montana Supreme Court defines inverse condemnation as a "cause of action against a governmental defendant to recover the value of property which has been taken in fact by the governmental defendant, even though no formal exercise of the power of eminent domain has been attempted by the taking agency." Adams v. Dept. of Highways, 753 P.2d 846, 848 (Mont.1988). Additionally, Montana courts recognize a cause of action for inverse condemnation in cases, like this one, without a physical taking of the property where "the result of the [City Council's] actions has been to impose a servitude, a limitation upon the use and marketability of plaintiffs' properties ..." Knight v. Billings, 197 Mont. 165, 642 P.2d 141, 145 (Mont.1982). Thus, Bateson appears to have an adequate state compensation remedy which he must pursue before he can state a taking claim. "Until the state courts establish that [Bateson] may not obtain just compensation through an inverse condemnation action under any circumstances, [Montana] procedures are adequate within the terms of Williamson County and [Bateson's] failure to use them cannot be excused." Austin v. City and County of Honolulu, 840 F.2d 678, 681 (9th Cir. 1988). Accordingly, we affirm the district court's dismissal of Bateson's inverse condemnation claim.
Bateson seeks attorney's fees on appeal pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988. In pertinent part, 42 U.S.C. § 1988 provides that "the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs."
We elect not to award Bateson attorney's fees. In Robins v. Harum, 773 F.2d 1004, 1011 (9th Cir. 1985), this court refused to exercise its discretion and award attorney's fees to the prevailing party because counsel failed to provide the court with any analysis of the central case, and thereby necessitated the court to engage in independent research. Similarly, Bateson's attorney has not adequately briefed the issues he presents, and thereby created the need for this court to engage in extensive supplemental research. Consequently, we deny Bateson's request for attorney's fees.
Section 1 of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, Rev.Stat. Sec. 1979, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, provides: