Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/112/1283/585003/
Timestamp: 2019-11-18 18:26:24
Document Index: 409449141

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 459', '§ 704', '§ 1331', '§ 2401', '§ 459', '§ 1507', '§ 2401', '§ 704']

Dunn-mccampbell Royalty Interest, Inc., a Texas Corporation;dunn-padre Corporation, a Texas Corporation;mccampbell Minerals, Inc., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. National Park Service, an Agency of the United Statesdepartment of Interior; Butch Farabee, in Hisofficial Capacity As Superintendent Forthe Padre Island Nationalseashore,defendants-appellees, 112 F.3d 1283 (5th Cir. 1997) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fifth Circuit › 1997 › Dunn-mccampbell Royalty Interest, Inc., a Texas Corporation;dunn-padre Corporation, a Texas Corporat...
Dunn-mccampbell Royalty Interest, Inc., a Texas Corporation;dunn-padre Corporation, a Texas Corporation;mccampbell Minerals, Inc., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. National Park Service, an Agency of the United Statesdepartment of Interior; Butch Farabee, in Hisofficial Capacity As Superintendent Forthe Padre Island Nationalseashore,defendants-appellees, 112 F.3d 1283 (5th Cir. 1997)
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - 112 F.3d 1283 (5th Cir. 1997) May 23, 1997
The district court held that Dunn-McCampbell's challenges were time barred and that the companies' substantive claims were without merit. We review the district court's grant of a summary judgment motion de novo. Nose v. Attorney General of the United States, 993 F.2d 75, 78 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, 998 F.2d 1015 (1993). Summary judgment is appropriate when "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." FED. R. C IV. P. 56(c). When ruling on summary judgment motions, we credit the evidence of the nonmovant and draw all justifiable inferences in his favor. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 2513, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202 (1986). However, we must affirm summary judgment if there is no need for trial. O'Hare v. Global Natural Resources, Inc., 898 F.2d 1015, 1017 (5th Cir. 1990).
As a preliminary matter, we note that neither the National Park Service organic statute, 16 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., nor the Padre Island National Seashore Enabling Legislation, 16 U.S.C. § 459d, provides directly for judicial review, and neither creates a private right of action. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and they may not hear claims without jurisdiction conferred by statute. Veldhoen v. United States Coast Guard, T.A., 35 F.3d 222, 225 (5th Cir. 1994). However, even absent a statutory cause of action, Dunn-McCampbell may challenge the agency's authority under the APA. See 5 U.S.C. § 704 ("Agency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review."). Dunn-McCampbell may therefore challenge the National Park Service's 9B regulations under the APA, and this court will have federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Veldhoen, 35 F.3d at 225.
Accordingly, Dunn-McCampbell's APA challenge is governed by the general statute of limitations provision of 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a), which provides that every civil action against the United States is barred unless brought within six years of accrual.1 Under established principles of sovereign immunity, the United States is immune from suit unless it consents, and the terms of its consent circumscribe our jurisdiction. United States v. Dalm, 494 U.S. 596, 608, 110 S. Ct. 1361, 1368, 108 L. Ed. 2d 548 (1990). The applicable statute of limitations is one such term of consent, and failure to sue the United States within the limitations period is not merely a waivable defense. It operates to deprive federal courts of jurisdiction. Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe v. United States, 895 F.2d 588, 592 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 824, 111 S. Ct. 75, 112 L. Ed. 2d 48 (1990).
* Dunn-McCampbell asserts both facial and applied challenges to the Park Service regulations. The companies assert that the regulations exceeded National Park Service authority under the Padre Island National Seashore Act, 16 U.S.C. § 459d et seq. We need not reach the merits of that claim here. On a facial challenge to a regulation, the limitations period begins to run when the agency publishes the regulation in the Federal Register. Federal Crop Ins. Corp. v. Merrill, 332 U.S. 380, 384, 68 S. Ct. 1, 3, 92 L. Ed. 10 (1947); Nutt v. Drug Enforcement Administration, 916 F.2d 202, 203 (5th Cir. 1990); Friends of Sierra Railroad, Inc. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 881 F.2d 663, 667-68 (9th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1093, 110 S. Ct. 1166, 107 L. Ed. 2d 1069 (1990); see also 44 U.S.C. § 1507 (filing a document in the Federal Register is sufficient to give notice of the contents to any person subject to or affected by it). Dunn-McCampbell failed to mount a facial challenge to the regulations within six years of their publication in 1979, and the companies' cause of action falls outside the limitations period for civil actions against the United States in § 2401(a).
It is possible, however, to challenge a regulation after the limitations period has expired, provided that the ground for the challenge is that the issuing agency exceeded its constitutional or statutory authority. To sustain such a challenge, however, the claimant must show some direct, final agency action involving the particular plaintiff within six years of filing suit. The Ninth Circuit, for example, has held that a challenger may contest an agency decision as exceeding constitutional or statutory authority after the limitations period, but only by petitioning the agency to review the application of the regulation to that particular challenger. Wind River Mining Corp. v. United States, 946 F.2d 710, 715 (9th Cir. 1991). Although the Wind River Court never said so explicitly, the court treated the agency's denial of that petition as a "final agency action" sufficient to create a new cause of action under the APA.
Similarly, in Public Citizen v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the D.C. Circuit held that it had jurisdiction to hear a substantive challenge after the limitations period had run. 901 F.2d 147, 152 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 992, 111 S. Ct. 536, 112 L. Ed. 2d 546 (1990). In that case, the claimant filed a petition with the agency to rescind regulations, then challenged the agency's denial of the petition in federal court. Id. Indeed, we have held that when an agency applies a rule, the limitations period running from the rule's publication will not bar a claimant from challenging the agency's statutory authority. Texas v. United States, 749 F.2d 1144, 1146 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1032, 105 S. Ct. 3513, 87 L. Ed. 2d 642 (1985).
An "as applied" challenge must rest on final agency action under the APA. 5 U.S.C. § 704 ("Agency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no remedy in a court are subject to judicial review."). But absent some "final" action, the APA will not provide a cause of action to challenge agency decisions. Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 497 U.S. 871, 882, 110 S. Ct. 3177, 3185, 111 L. Ed. 2d 695 (1990); Veldhoen, 35 F.3d at 225. The Supreme Court has identified four factors for determining when agency action is final: (1) whether the challenged action is a definitive statement of the agency's position, (2) whether the action has the status of law with penalties for noncompliance, (3) whether the impact on the plaintiff is direct and immediate, and (4) whether the agency expects immediate compliance. Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149-53, 87 S. Ct. 1507, 1516-17, 18 L. Ed. 2d 681 (1967), overruled on other grounds, Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 105, 97 S. Ct. 980, 984, 51 L. Ed. 2d 192 (1977).
Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, available only where government officials clearly have failed to perform nondiscretionary duties. Pittston Coal Group v. Sebben, 488 U.S. 105, 121, 109 S. Ct. 414, 424, 102 L. Ed. 2d 408 (1988); Carter v. Seamans, 411 F.2d 767, 773 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 941, 90 S. Ct. 953, 25 L. Ed. 2d 121 (1970). In order for mandamus to issue, Dunn-McCampbell must demonstrate that a government officer owes the companies a legal duty that is a specific, ministerial act, devoid of the exercise of judgment or discretion. Richardson v. United States, 465 F.2d 844, 849 (3d Cir. 1972), rev'd on other grounds, 418 U.S. 166, 94 S. Ct. 2940, 41 L. Ed. 2d 678 (1974). The legal duty must be set out in the Constitution or by statute, Giddings v. Chandler, 979 F.2d 1104, 1108 (5th Cir. 1992), and its performance must be positively commanded and so plainly prescribed as to be free from doubt. Id.
The only legal question, then, is what kind of claims Dunn-McCampbell could advance after 1986-89 against the Park Service, when it acquired standing to sue. I agree with the majority that by the time Dunn-McCampbell achieved standing, it could not challenge the "procedural" basis for the Park Service's 1979 regulations. According to terminology developed in the D.C. Circuit, "procedural" challenges address the agency's compliance with rulemaking requirements such as notice and comment, while "substantive" challenges attack the regulation's compliance with statutory authority or other substantive deficiency. See generally N.L.R.B. Union v. FLRA, 834 F.2d 191, 195-97 (D.C. Cir. 1987). Because it is imperative to the administrative process that procedural challenges be posed at the onset of a newly-promulgated regulation, a number of agency statutes set very short deadlines, e.g. 60 days, on initiating such claims. See, e.g., id. The Park Service lacks such organic statutory protection, however, so the six-year general federal limitations statute governs procedural challenges in this case, and no party, including Dunn-McCampbell, could pursue these challenges after 1985.
Although an administrative proceeding is not a civil action, a complaint filed in federal court seeking review of an administrative decision is. Wind River Mining Corp. v. United States, 946 F.2d 710, 712 (9th Cir. 1991); N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken v. Atomic Energy Comm'n, 316 F.2d 401, 405-06 (D.C. Cir. 1963)
See Public Citizen v. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 901 F.2d 147, 152 (D.C. Cir. 1990) ("were we to hold in this case that Public Citizen's challenge to the lawfulness of the NRC's action was untimely, Public Citizen could file a petition for rulemaking and then raise its claim of unlawfulness when the Commission denied the petition. Such a requirement would be a waste of everyone's time and resources.")