Opinion ID: 300202
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Alleged Loss of Tax Base

Text: 21 There is one cause of action as to which we do affirm the dismissal of the complaint. The City of Inglewood includes in its federal jurisdictional statement a claim against Los Angeles for damages it has allegedly suffered from the loss to its tax base and publicly owned property. 11 Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the state, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the government powers of the state as may be entrusted to them.    The state, therefore, at its pleasure may modify or withdraw all such powers, may take without compensation such property, hold it itself, or vest it in other agencies, expand or contract the territorial area, unite the whole or a part of it with another municipality, repeal the charter and destroy the corporation.    In all these respects the state is supreme, and its legislative body, conforming its action to the state Constitution, may do as it will, unrestrained by any provision of the Constitution of the United States. [Emphasis added.] Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161, 178-179, 28 S.Ct. 40, 46, 52 L.Ed. 151 (1907). 22 Following this rule, we hold that claims for money damages by one municipal corporation against another municipal corporation of the same state, whether based upon an inverse condemnation theory, upon negligence or nuisance theories, or upon violations of zoning laws, do not arise under the Constitution of the United States. See City of Boston v. Massachusetts Port Authority, 320 F.Supp. 1317 (D.Mass. 1971). The City of Inglewood may have a good claim against Los Angeles for these losses, but it does not have a federal cause of action. This holding does not affect the City of Inglewood's right to gain appropriate enforcement of 49 U.S.C. sections 1716(c) (3) and 1718(4) (discussed below), or its ability to pursue such claims in the state courts. 23