Source: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/675/60/252594/
Timestamp: 2013-05-21 22:17:17
Document Index: 61443564

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1701', '§ 701', '§ 1337', '§ 1361', '§ 1983', '§ 1331', '§ 1337', '§ 1701', '§ 1701', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 1701', '§ 706', '§ 706']

675 F.2d 60: Regis J. Kirby, Marie Maiers, Emily Traum, Henry Simmons,patrick Maloney, and Norbert Loveland, and Allothers Similarly Situated, Appellants, v. United States Government, Department of Housing & Urbandevelopment, St. Francis General Hospital, and St.francis Plaza, Inc :: US Court of Appeals Cases :: Justia
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675 F.2d 60: Regis J. Kirby, Marie Maiers, Emily Traum, Henry Simmons,patrick Maloney, and Norbert Loveland, and Allothers Similarly Situated, Appellants, v. United States Government, Department of Housing & Urbandevelopment, St. Francis General Hospital, and St.francis Plaza, Inc
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. - 675 F.2d 60
Argued Dec. 1, 1981.Decided March 19, 1982
1 The Act addressed two principal issues: urban renewal and low-rent public housing. It amended and extended previous legislation relating to the provision and improvement of housing and the renewal of urban communities. S.Rep.No.924, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 2844, 2844. Section 202 of the Act, as now amended, has as its primary goal "to assist private nonprofit corporations, limited profit sponsors, consumer cooperatives, or public bodies or agencies to provide housing and related facilities for elderly or handicapped families." 12 U.S.C. § 1701q(a)(1) (1976)
2 Although the plaintiffs have captioned their action to include as plaintiffs "all others similarly situated," to date no attempt has been made to comply with the class action certification requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23
3 We believe that we cannot refrain from commenting on the inadequacy and disorder of the papers which have been filed by plaintiffs' counsel in this lawsuit and the obvious lack of care that went into their preparation. Both the complaint below and the briefs and appendix to this court are replete with glaring omissions and miscitations and reflect a thorough ignorance of the rules of this circuit. Indeed, although this case comes before us on, among other grounds, the granting of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, plaintiffs' counsel initially failed to include a copy of his complaint in his appendix so that we could consider the complaint's adequacy. That plaintiffs' counsel was remiss does not, of course, excuse the appellees from seeing to it that a proper appendix was filed prior to argument
4 In addition to raising the points noted in the text infra, the complaint alleged:
5 The complaint asserts jurisdiction under 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., the first, fifth, and fourteenth amendments, 28 U.S.C. § 1337, 28 U.S.C. § 1361, and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985
6 Plaintiffs have not predicated subject matter jurisdiction of their action on 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Their allegation that jurisdiction lies by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1337 is, however, sufficient to support the instant action. That section provides:
7 In appropriate cases the question whether a litigant satisfies the zone-of-interest test may also be framed by reference to the concept of third-party standing. See Bowman v. Wilson, 672 F.2d 1145 at 1151-1152 (3d Cir. 1982); Hetherton v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 652 F.2d 1152, 1155-56 (3d Cir. 1981); note 11 infra
8 12 U.S.C. § 1701q(a)(1) states that "(t)he purpose of this section is to assist (various sponsors) to provide housing and related facilities for elderly or handicapped families." (Emphasis added.) "Related facilities" are defined in 12 U.S.C. § 1701q(d)(8) as
9 Plaintiffs cannot sue, however, in their capacity as taxpayers complaining about the misappropriation of federal monies. See Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., supra; Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). For a taxpayer to have standing to complain of Government action by virtue of his liability for taxes, two requirements must be satisfied. First, "a taxpayer will be a proper party to allege the unconstitutionality only of exercises of congressional power under the taxing and spending clause of Art. I, § 8, of the Constitution." Flast v. Cohen, supra, 392 U.S. at 102, 88 S.Ct. at 1953. Second, a taxpayer must "show that the challenged enactment exceeds specific constitutional limitations of the taxing and spending power and not simply that the enactment is generally beyond the powers delegated to Congress by Art. I, § 8." Id. at 102-03, 88 S.Ct. at 1953; see Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., supra, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 762. Plaintiffs satisfy neither requirement of the Flast test. Flast limits taxpayer standing to challenges of exercises of congressional taxing and spending power and is not applicable to the action of administrative agencies such as HUD which are extensions of the Executive Branch. See Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., supra, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 762. And plaintiffs have identified no specific constitutional limitation on the type of spending at issue here
10 Our conclusion is reinforced by a passage from the House Report accompanying the enactment of 12 U.S.C. § 1701q(d)(2):
11 Plaintiffs cannot, as they attempt to do, bring suit on behalf of the elderly and handicapped who will be denied access to the related facilities or to the additional residential space that would be available to them in a properly conforming project. This is not an appropriate case for third-party standing, which may be asserted when a person injured in his own right champions the constitutional rights of a third person who is also injured by the same activity but is hampered in bringing the constitutional challenge. See Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 114-15, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 2874, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976) (plurality); Bowman v. Wilson, 672 F.2d 1145 at 1151-1152 (3d Cir. 1982). Any claim of the elderly and handicapped derives from the Act and does not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. Moreover, there appears to be no impediment to their suing on their own behalf
12 The scope of review applicable under the APA is set forth in 5 U.S.C. § 706. The provisions applicable to this action empower a federal court to hold unlawful agency action found to be "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law" or "in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) & (C)