Source: https://openjurist.org/664/f2d/1210/perry-v-housing-authority-of-city-of-charleston-w-f-c-j-m-p-j-b
Timestamp: 2018-03-22 08:18:51
Document Index: 627422308

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1441', '§ 1441', '§ 1715', '§ 1402', '§ 1401', '§ 1743', '§ 1715', '§ 1437', '§ 1437', '§ 1715', '§ 1715', '§ 1437', '§ 1441', '§ 1441', '§ 1715', '§ 5301', '§ 1401', '§ 1437', '§ 1401', '§ 1743', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1437', '§ 6000', '§ 6010', '§ 1437', '§ 1437', '§ 1441', '§ 1983', '§ 1715', '§ 1715', '§ 1401', '§ 1715', '§ 1437', '§ 1437', '§ 1401', '§ 1401']

664 F. 2d 1210 - Perry v. Housing Authority of City of Charleston
664 F2d 1210 Perry v. Housing Authority of City of Charleston
664 F.2d 1210
Geraldine PERRY, Individually and on behalf of all others
The HOUSING AUTHORITY OF the CITY OF CHARLESTON, a corporate
body politic; W. F. Stack, Individually and in his Official
Capacity as Executive Director of the Housing Authority of
the City of Charleston; and Jack C. Miller; Wilmot J.
Fraser; Viola M. Smalls; Max Kirshstein; Raymond P. McClain;
James J. French; and Larry B. James, Individually and in
their Official Capacities as members of the Housing
Authority of the City of Charleston, Appellees.
National Housing Law Project and National Tenants
Organization, Amici Curiae.
These broad declarations of policy as stated in §§ 1441 and 1437d(c), establish two things: First, the purpose of the legislation was to help the states; second, the purpose in helping the states was ultimately to benefit low income families. Thus the legislation had two beneficiaries-states as direct beneficiaries and low-income families as indirect beneficiaries.8 While these provisions are too general to create substantive rights in the tenants or duties in the landlords, see Cannon, 441 U.S. at 690-93 n. 13, 99 S.Ct. at 1954-56 n. 13, there is no question but that low income tenants were desired beneficiaries of this legislation. See Falzarano v. United States, 607 F.2d 506, 509 (1st Cir. 1979) (low income tenants are prime beneficiaries of §§ 1441, 1441a, but not sole beneficiaries, private sector also a beneficiary under 12 U.S.C. § 1715l ); Thompson v. Washington, 497 F.2d 626, 633 (D.C.Cir.1973) (§ 1402 to limit rent for low-income families); National Tenants Organization, Inc. v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 358 F.Supp. 312, 314 (D.D.C.1973), remanded, 505 F.2d 476 (D.C.Cir.1974) (public housing tenants are primary beneficiaries of Housing Act of 1937); Silva v. East Providence Housing Authority, 423 F.Supp. 453, 464 (D.R.I.1976), remanded, 565 F.2d 1217 (1st Cir. 1977), (low income families are beneficiaries of § 1401). But see Shivers v. Landriue, No. 79-1880, slip op. at 10-11 (D.C.Cir. Mar. 27, 1981) (12 U.S.C. § 1743 had no "especial" beneficiaries); Tenants' Council of Tiber Island-Carrollsby Square v. Lynn, 497 F.2d 648, 651-52 (D.D.C.1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 970, 95 S.Ct. 235, 42 L.Ed.2d 186 (1974) (12 U.S.C. § 1715k was passed to eliminate slums, not to benefit any particular class of tenants).
The fact that the plaintiffs are the indirect recipients of federal largess, however, does not in and of itself create enforceable rights which, after all, is the critical issue posed by the second Cort standard. There is clearly no indication in the legislation or in its history that Congress intended to create in public housing tenants a federal right of action against their municipal landlords. While silence on the question of legislative intent may not be conclusive against implying a remedy, Cannon, 441 U.S. at 694, 99 S.Ct. at 1956, it conversely does not create a presumption in favor of the remedy. Congress need not fear that unless it specifically denies a cause of action, the courts will automatically imply one; when Congress is silent there is no presumption in favor of a legislatively created cause of action.
B. Landlord agrees:
It is plain that the federal enactments sought to create neither rights in the tenants nor duties in the landlords. See also Touche Ross, 442 at 569, 99 S.Ct. at 2485. The statutes themselves, on which the plaintiffs rely, e. g., §§ 1437, 1441, 1441a, are simply precatory statements of Congress' designs; even § 1437d(c)(4)(C) is at best a mandate only to HUD. None of these provisions can be said to intend the creation of the kind of rights to which a remedy in favor of tenants such as the plaintiffs could attach. The Supreme Court "has noted that there 'would be far less reason to infer a private remedy in favor of individual persons' where Congress, rather than drafting the legislation 'with an unmistakable focus on the benefitted class,' instead has framed the statute simply as a general prohibition or a commitment to a federal agency." Coutu, 49 U.S.L.W. at 4358 (quoting Cannon, 441 U.S. at 690-692, 99 S.Ct. at 1954-55). And this accords with most of the decisions which have confronted the issue.
In Falzarano v. United States, 607 F.2d 506 (1st Cir. 1979), tenants filed suit against HUD and the managers of a housing development alleging that a fund-siphoning scheme had contributed to deteriorated housing. The First Circuit could find no support for the claim that the National Housing Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1715l, created a private right of action. The section relied upon by the plaintiffs in Falzarano, 12 U.S.C. § 1715l(d)(3), provided that mortgages should comply with regulations set out by HUD. In our case one statute in question, 42 U.S.C. § 1437d, also provides that HUD can establish procedures for project management, but no right of enforcement is granted to the tenants, only to HUD.
A similar view was taken by the Eighth Circuit in Cedar-Riverside Association v. City of Minneapolis, 606 F.2d 254 (8th Cir. 1979). Although Cedar-Riverside differed from our case in that the contractor claimed it had a federal cause of action under § 1441, the finding of the court is nevertheless applicable here: "we find in these statutes no indication of legislative intent to create an implied right of action. The directive in 42 U.S.C. § 1441 ... simply calls upon federal agencies to act consistently with the purposes of the Housing Act." Id. at 257 (emphasis added). Cf. Roberts v. Cameron-Brown Co., 556 F.2d 356, 361 (5th Cir. 1977) (no evidence of a private right of action in HUD Handbook promulgated under 12 U.S.C. § 1715z); People's Housing Development Corp. v. City of Poughkeepsie, 425 F.Supp. 482, 491 (S.D.N.Y.1976) (nothing in 42 U.S.C. § 5301 creates a private right of action; statute mentions procedures and remedies for Secretary of HUD only).
Plaintiffs would find support in Silva v. East Providence Housing Authority, 423 F.Supp. 453 (D.R.I.1976), remanded, 565 F.2d 1217 (1st Cir. 1977), in which the court found an implied right of action in 42 U.S.C. § 1401 (now § 1437). The court first found that the tenants were the especial beneficiaries of the Housing Act, and then noted that HUD had the power to enforce the act. Ostensibly applying the second Cort factor, the district court wrote: "In the present case, Congress' intent to benefit plaintiffs' class is made so manifest in 42 U.S.C. § 1401, that the Court concludes that the inferences to be drawn from the existence in HUD of a right of action against (East Providence Housing Authority), while they are not helpful to plaintiffs' contentions, are not particularly damaging either." Id. at 464. This analysis is not persuasive. First, the inquiry under the second Cort factor is not whether Congress intended to benefit the plaintiffs' class,12 but whether Congress intended to create a private right of action. The Silva court never examined this question. Recent cases in the Supreme Court amply demonstrate that Congress may pass legislation to benefit a particular class without creating a private right of action. See, e. g., Coutu, 450 U.S. at 771-773, 101 S.Ct. at 1461-62; TAMA, 444 U.S. at 24, 100 S.Ct. at 249. Second, we disagree that it is "so manifest" that Congress intended to create a private remedy. Even the court in Silva admitted that the record was bereft of such indication. Id. Unlike the court in Silva, however, we do not hold HACC amenable to suit in this court in the face of Congressional silence.13
It is proper in this case to combine any discussion of factors three and four in the Cort formulation since it would plainly be inconsistent with any legislative scheme in the federal legislation to imply a private cause of action where the legal right invoked is one traditionally left to state law. It would be hard to find an area of the law in which the states have a greater interest or have had greater involvement than in the legal area of landlord-tenant. See City of Rohnert Park v. Harris, 601 F.2d 1040, 1947 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 961, 100 S.Ct. 1647, 64 L.Ed.2d 236 (1980); Roberts v. Cameron-Brown Co., 556 F.2d 356, 361 (5th Cir. 1977). The D.C. Circuit recently wrote that "we are compelled to recognize that the stated claims are typical of the landlord-tenant relationship, local in character and generally reserved for resolution by the states. Complaints of excessive rent, improper maintenance, and unlawful evictions are cognizable in the state courts, but have no basis for remedy under federal law, or at least not under section 608 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. § 1743) which simply authorizes HUD to insure mortgages." Shivers v. Landrieu, No. 79-1880, slip op. at 12-13 (D.C.Cir. Mar. 27, 1981). Cf. Cannon, 441 U.S. at 708, 99 S.Ct. at 1963 (implied remedy in Title IX does not encroach on state remedies; since the Civil War the federal government has protected citizens against discrimination); Cort, 422 U.S. at 84-85, 95 S.Ct. at 2090-91 (corporations are created by state law; stockholders may have a cause of action under state law).
Section 1983 applies to deprivations of rights created by the United States Constitution or statutes under color of state law. The plaintiffs concede, and the district court so held, that there is no constitutional right to the housing involved here and thus no constitutional violation. 486 F.Supp. at 503 (citing Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 74, 92 S.Ct. 862, 874, 31 L.Ed.2d 36 (1972)). In Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980), the Supreme Court recognized that a § 1983 action may be predicated solely upon violation of a federal statutory right. See also Blue v. Craig, 505 F.2d 830 (4th Cir. 1974). In order for a plaintiff to prevail under a purely statutory-based § 1983 claim, though, the court must determine (1) whether Congress, in enacting a statute and its enforcement scheme, supplanted a private remedy and, (2) whether the statute created "rights, privileges or immunities" within the meaning of § 1983. Middlesex City Sewer Authority v. National Sea Clammers Association, --- U.S. ----, ----, 101 S.Ct. 2615, 2625-26, 69 L.Ed.2d 435 (1981). Failing either of these, Thiboutot grants plaintiffs no cause of action under § 1983. Pennhurst State School of Holderman, --- U.S. ----, ---- and n. 21, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 1545 and n. 21, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981). As we have seen, there is no violation of a federal statutory right by the defendants. The plaintiffs have not pointed to any substantive provisions of the various housing acts which give them a tangible right, privilege, or immunity. They have only cited to 42 U.S.C. § 1437 which is a policy section expressing Congress' purpose in passing the legislation. Congress stated that its purpose was "to assist the several States ... to remedy the unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of low income ...." As we have previously noted, the Act was designed to help low income families, but the actual assistance went not to the tenants, but to the states. The recent decision in Pennhurst appears conclusive on this point. In Pennhurst the court held that 42 U.S.C. § 6000, et seq. did not create enforceable rights in the handicapped.14 If anything the "rights" claimed in Pennhurst were more definite than those claimed here. Compare, e. g., 42 U.S.C. § 6010 with 42 U.S.C. § 1437. We therefore conclude that § 1437-or the other policy statements, §§ 1441, 1441a-does not create any legally cognizable rights in tenants of programs funded under the housing statutes.15 Assuming arguendo that HACC and its officials acted under color of state law to bring about the situation at George Legare Homes, the § 1983 claim must fail because there is no violation either of the Constitution or of a federal statute.
Finally, the plaintiffs have alleged on appeal that they are third-party beneficiaries to the contract between HACC and HUD.16 This claim has been examined and rejected by several courts. We join these courts in finding that, based on the statutory scheme, the Annual Contributions Contract between HUD and HACC, and the lease between HACC and the tenants, the plaintiffs are at best incidental beneficiaries to the contract between HUD and HACC and therefore have no right to sue HACC. See Falzarano v. United States, 607 F.2d 506, 511 (1st Cir. 1979) (based on 12 U.S.C. § 1715l ); Harlib v. Lynn, 511 F.2d 55-56 (7th Cir. 1975) (based on 12 U.S.C. § 1715l ), Roberts v. Cameron-Brown Co., 556 F.2d 356, 361-62 (5th Cir. 1977) (based on HUD Handbook); Boston Public Council, Inc. v. Lynn, 388 F.Supp. 493, 496 (D.Mass.1974) (based on 42 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq.); Fenner v. Bruce Manor, Inc., 409 F.Supp. 1332, 1349 (D.Md.1976) (based on 12 U.S.C. § 1715l, z). But see Holbrook v. Pitt, 643 F.2d 1261, 1269-73 (7th Cir. 1981) (based on 42 U.S.C. § 1437f).
Perry v. Housing Authority of City of Charleston, 486 F.Supp. 498 (D.S.C.1980)
Id. at 78, 95 S.Ct. at 2088 (emphasis in original) (citations omitted)
The whole area of implied rights of action was decried as confusing even before Cort. It was described as a "state of affairs (that) is especially undesirable, it invites judges to make decisions based upon their predilections and permits them to justify their results by choosing between the lines of precedent, thus foreclosing all hope of predictability and consistency." Comment, "Private Right of Action Under Amtrak and Ash: Some Implications for Implication," 123 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1392, 1397 (1975)
It is interesting that under both lines of analyses the Supreme Court has rejected far more would-be rights of action than it has approved. See also Cannon, 441 U.S. at 740-42, 99 S.Ct. at 1980-81 (Powell, J., dissenting) (during the time the Supreme Court rejected four attempts to create private rights of action, the circuit court had approved twenty implied private causes of action)
42 U.S.C. § 1437d(c)(4)(C)
Clearly the special class could not be contractors, M. B. Guran Co. v. City of Akron, 546 F.2d 201, 204 (6th Cir. 1976), developers, Cedar-Riverside Associates, Inc. v. City of Minneapolis, 606 F.2d 254, 257 (8th Cir. 1979), or service organization, People's Development Corp. v. City of Poughkeepsie, 425 F.Supp. 482, 491 (S.D.N.Y.1976)
Pre-Cort cases are split. Compare Potrero Hill Community Action Committee v. Housing Authority of the City of San Francisco, 410 F.2d 974 (9th Cir. 1969) (finding no cause of action created by § 1401) and Knox Hill Tenant Council v. Washington, 448 F.2d 1045 (D.C.Cir.1971) (finding that § 1401 created a private cause of action)
In Boston Public Housing Tenants' Policy Council, Inc. v. Lynn, 388 F.Supp. 493 (D.Mass.1974), a pre-Cort decision, the district court could see no way to permit the tenants' suit against HUD:
--- U.S. at ---- - ----, 101 S.Ct. at 1540-41.