Source: https://casetext.com/case/garcia-v-cecos-intern-inc
Timestamp: 2019-07-22 10:01:53
Document Index: 44949725

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 6901', '§ 1983', '§ 265', '§ 123', '§ 1983', '§ 6901', '§ 1365', '§ 1365', '§ 1369', '§ 1365', '§ 6972', '§ 505', '§ 1365', '§ 1251', '§ 1401', '§ 6972', '§ 6972', '§ 1365', '§ 1415', '§ 4911', '§ 7604', '§ 1983', '§ 1251', '§ 1401', '§ 6926', '§ 6928', '§ 6905', '§ 6094', '§ 6901', '§ 5141', '§ 3521', '§ 1139']

Garcia v. Cecos Intern., Inc, 761 F.2d 76 | Casetext
Garcia v. Cecos Intern., Inc.
761 F.2d 76 (1st Cir. 1985)
Garciav.Cecos Intern., Inc.
United States Court of Appeals, First CircuitMay 15, 1985
Leonardo Andrade Lugo, Hato Rey, P.R., with whom Goldman Antonetti, Santurce, P.R., was on brief for Cecos International, Inc.
Jesus R. Rabell-Mendez, San Juan, P.R., with whom Marta Quinones, Hato Rey, P.R., Arturo Diaz, Rio Piedras, P.R., and Cancio, Nadal Rivera, Hato Rey, P.R., were on brief for Municipality of Ponce.
Before COFFIN, Circuit Judge, WISDOM, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWNES, Circuit Judge.
This case involves federal jurisdictional requirements for certain private citizens' suits in environmental litigation. We hold that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901- 6987 (1982), requires a citizen to give the Administrator actual notice of intent to sue at least sixty days before the filing of the complaint if the citizen wishes to bring action under section 6972(a)-(b) of the statute. We further find that the comprehensive remedial devices in the RCRA foreclose a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1982). Because all parties concede that there was no actual notice in accordance with section 6972, we vacate the judgment of the district court and remand the case to the district court with instructions to remand to the Superior Court of Puerto Rico.
In the summer of 1982, EPA filed suit against Ponce for alleged violations of 40 CFR § 265 (1982) (interim status standards for owners and operators of hazardous waste facilities). That fall, the government of Puerto Rico and the EPA executed a "Memorandum of Agreement" to establish policies, responsibilities, and procedures under id. § 123.126 for a waste management program. Meanwhile, Ponce had retained Cecos International, Inc., to manage the facility. Cecos submitted, in stages, its plans to bring the facility into full compliance with federal law. (This process was ninety percent complete at the time of the citizens' suit.) EPA's civil action was settled by a Consent Order in May 1983.
In December 1983, a group of citizens of Ponce filed a civil action in the Superior Court of Puerto Rico against Cecos and Ponce and its mayor seeking injunctive relief against the construction and imminent operation of a waste disposal facility at the site "until all applicable laws and regulations were complied with". In January 1984, the defendants successfully petitioned for removal to federal district court, alleging deprivations of their civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1982). After removal, the plaintiffs amended their complaint to add alleged violations of RCRA, id. §§ 6901-6987. The plaintiffs appealed from the district court's denial of the injunction. On appeal, we find on our own motion that there is no federal jurisdiction and accordingly dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
"(b) Actions prohibited. No action may be commenced under paragraph (a)(1) of this section —
Id. The plain language of section 6972(b) commands sixty days' notice before the commencement of the suit. To accept anything less "constitutes, in effect, judicial amendment in abrogation of explicit, unconditional statutory language". City of Highland Park v. Train, N.D.Ill. 1974, 374 F. Supp. 758, 766, aff'd, 7 Cir. 1975, 519 F.2d 681, cert. denied, 1976, 424 U.S. 927, 96 S.Ct. 1141, 47 L.Ed.2d 337.
Cecos urges us to adopt a similar, "functional" approach concerning the commencement of an action under RCRA. We decline to do so, noting that our dictum in Roosevelt Campobello was ill-advised and against our holding in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. United States Veterans Administration, 1 Cir. 1976, 541 F.2d 119, where we upheld strict application of the notice requirement. Moreover, Roosevelt Campobello concerned the plaintiffs' application for attorney's fees, not an adjudication of environmental issues. There was no contention that jurisdiction was improper in the original action. Id. at 432-33. The question before the Court was whether FWPCA's attorneys' fees, provision, 33 U.S.C. § 1365(d) (1982), which on its face applied only to the Act's citizen suit provision, id. § 1365(a), would also apply to a suit brought under id. § 1369, which governs petitions for judicial review of the EPA's actions. Campobello, 711 F.2d at 433. In the instant case, by contrast, we are attempting not to fill statutory interstices regarding the award of attorney's fees but to construe statutory prerequisites for the maintenance of the initial action.
The identical language of the notice provision in both Veterans Administration and the present case is unambiguous: "No action may be commenced" by private plaintiffs without sixty days' notice. 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1) (1982) (FWPCA); 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1) (1982) (RCRA). The notice requirement is not a technical wrinkle or superfluous formality that federal courts may waive at will. We believe that it is part of the jurisdictional conferral from Congress that cannot be altered by the courts.
We recognize that some other courts have applied a "pragmatic" approach to the sixty-day notice provision in environmental statutes. In Pymatuning Water Shed Citizens v. Eaton, 3 Cir. 1981, 644 F.2d 995, the Third Circuit upheld an action under section 1365 of FWPCA despite the plaintiffs' failure to give sixty days' notice. It was enough that the district court stayed the proceedings after the filing of the complaint. The Court held: "[It is not the case] that failure to abide by the § 505(b) notice provision [ 33 U.S.C. § 1365 (1982)] is fatal to the suit and can be cured only by dismissal and refiling after proper notice. We agree with appellee that the notice provision is procedural and that failure to abide by its terms does not void the judgment of the district court." Id. at 996. Similarly, in Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Callaway, 2 Cir. 1975, 524 F.2d 79, the Second Circuit waived strict compliance with the FWPCA's sixty-day notice requirement after the defendant asserted that it would take no action. Id. at 84 n. 4. See also Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Train, D.C. Cir. 1974, 510 F.2d 692, 703 (notice provision of FWPCA held not jurisdictional prerequisite); Conservation Society of Southern Vermont, Inc. v. Secretary of Transportation, 2 Cir. 1974, 508 F.2d 927, 938 (sixty-day notice provision does not erect absolute barrier to earlier suit by citizens); Annot., 68 A.L.R.Fed. 701 (1984).
Finally, in Kitlutsisti v. Arco Alaska, Inc., D.Alaska 1984, 592 F. Supp. 832, the district court waived the FWPCA's sixty-day notice provision in ongoing litigation: "[Section] 1365(b) only addresses the commencement of an action without notice. It does not ban plaintiffs from introducing new legal arguments in continuing litigation based on changed underlying circumstances." Id. at 842 (emphasis in original). The court also waived the sixty-day notice requirement because it would purportedly have made little difference. "In this case, EPA and the dischargers have not even hinted that they would attempt to correct the legal deficiencies with the permit. Therefore, any difference in legal theory was of no practical interest to defendants except as an argument to delay this lawsuit." Id.
In requiring strict compliance with the notice provision, this Court joins the Seventh Circuit. See Veterans Administration, 541 F.2d at 121. City of Highland Park v. Train, 7 Cir. 1975, 519 F.2d 681, cert. denied, 1976, 424 U.S. 917, 96 S.Ct. 1141, 47 L.Ed.2d 337. There, the private plaintiffs brought a citizen suit under the Clean Air Act alleging that the EPA Administrator had not promulgated certain air quality regulations for Illinois. Although they did not notify the EPA before commencing the suit, the plaintiffs argued that, since the government had sixty days to respond to the complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(a), the purpose of the notice requirement was satisfied. In language that is apposite here, the Court rejected that argument:
"Congress intended to provide for citizens' suits in a manner that would be least likely to clog already burdened federal courts and most likely to trigger governmental action which would alleviate any need for judicial relief. . . . Section 304(b)'s statutory command plainly states that `[n]o action may be commenced . . . prior to 60 days after the plaintiff has given notice of such action to the Administrator.' (Emphasis supplied.) Plaintiffs made no attempt whatsoever to comply with the notice provision, and their suit therefore could not properly be commenced."
Kentucky Recycling, 604 F.2d at 1013 (citations and footnotes omitted); see also Reeger v. Mill Service, Inc., D.C.Pa. 1984, 593 F. Supp. 360, holding plaintiffs' failure to comply with the notice provisions in environmental litigation precluded jurisdiction; Pinkney v. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, N.D.Ohio 1974, 375 F. Supp. 305.
The Supreme Court has demanded strict adherence to statutory provisions for citizens' suits in environmental litigation. In Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Association, 1981, 453 U.S. 1, 101 S.Ct. 2615, 69 L.Ed.2d 435, the Supreme Court held that statutory provisions conferring authority to sue upon private citizens in FWPCA, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251- 1376 (1982) and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, id. §§ 1401-1445, were to be narrowly construed:
In discussing the citizen-suit provisions in the two statutes, the Court said: "Plaintiffs invoking these provisions first must comply with specified procedures — which respondents here ignored — including in most cases 60 days' prior notice to potential defendants." Id. at 14, 101 S.Ct. at 2623, 69 L.Ed.2d at 447. In the light of the Supreme Court's strict interpretation of private rights of action in environmental litigation and its express mention of the notice provision, we cannot dismiss RCRA's identical requirement, 42 U.S.C. § 6972 (1982), as a formality or a procedural provision.
Judge Merritt has noted there are at least eight environmental statutes — beginning with the Clean Air Act of 1970 — that condition a private plaintiff's right of action on the plaintiff's having given prior administrative notice of the alleged violations. Ada-Cascade Watch Co. v. Cascade Resource Recovery, 6 Cir. 1983, 720 F.2d 897, 907 n. 3 (Merritt, J., dissenting). The language of many of these provisions is effectively identical. Compare 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(A) (1982) (citizen suits under RCRA) with 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1)(A) (1982) (citizen suits under FWPCA), id. § 1415(g)(2)(A) (citizen suits under Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972), 42 U.S.C. § 4911(b)(1)(A) (1982) (citizen suits under Noise Control Act of 1972), and id. § 7604(b)(1)(A) (citizen suits under the Clean Air Act). As Judge Merritt argued, "The widespread occurrence of such a notice requirement demonstrates that the provision was intended to be taken seriously". Id. at 908.
We have been unable to find any opinion predicating jurisdiction in a challenge to a hazardous waste site on section 1983, nor have counsel referred us to any. More importantly, we find that a section 1983 claim is here foreclosed by the more specific and more comprehensive provisions of RCRA. In Sea Clammers, the Supreme Court held: "When the remedial devices provided in a particular Act are sufficiently comprehensive, they may suffice to demonstrate congressional intent to preclude the remedy of suits under § 1983." 453 U.S. at 20, 101 S.Ct. at 2626, 69 L.Ed.2d at 450.
Although the Court was there concerned with the regulations of FWPCA, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251- 1376 (1982) and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, id. §§ 1401-1445, the statutory scheme of regulation under RCRA has a closely analogous "comprehensive enforcement scheme". RCRA has provisions for federal guidelines in state hazardous waste programs, 42 U.S.C. § 6926 (1982), for civil and criminal penalties for federal enforcement, id. § 6928, for integration with other environmental legislation, id. § 6905, and for federal-state and interstate cooperation, id. §§ 6094, 6926. As the statute iterates in its opening provision:
Id. § 6901(a)(4).
We also hold that the section 1983 cause of action is foreclosed under Parratt v. Taylor, 1981, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420, where the Supreme Court held that the existence of sufficient state remedies satisfied any requirement of due process where a section 1983 action was being alleged. Here, the plaintiffs have adequate state remedies. They can sue for damages, 31 L.P.R.A. § 5141, seek an injunction, 32 L.P.R.A. §§ 3521-3522, and seek relief through Puerto Rico's Environmental Act, 12 L.P.R.A. § 1139.
It has been urged that this Court should decline to review the case at hand on the basis of abstention. See Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 1943, 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed.2d 1424. Puerto Rico is said to have a comprehensive local program for management of waste disposal. Therefore, the exercise of federal judicial review here would be disruptive of state courts' efforts to adjudicate these claims. See Ada Cascade Watch Co. v. Cascade Resource Recovery, 6 Cir. 1983, 720 F.2d 897, applying Burford abstention to a suit under RCRA. We decline to reach this question, however, since we are without subject matter jurisdiction.