Opinion ID: 1036612
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: RCRA Claims

Text: RCRA was enacted “to reduce the generation of hazardous waste and to ensure the proper treatment, storage, and disposal of that waste which is nonetheless generated.” Meghrig v. KFC W., Inc., 516 U.S. 479, 483 (1996). To accomplish this goal, RCRA permits citizen suits against any person who has contributed or is contributing to the handling or disposal of waste “which may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment,” and authorizes district courts to issue injunctions to alleviate that harm. 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a)(1)(B). Courts may also “award costs of litigation (including reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) to the prevailing or substantially prevailing party, whenever the court determines such an award is appropriate.” 42 U.S.C. § 6972(e). The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Sanzari Appellees on the Litgo Appellants’ RCRA claim, based on New Jersey’s entire controversy doctrine. Under that doctrine, all claims which arise from related facts or the same transaction or series of transactions must be joined together. DiTrolio v. Antiles, 662 A.2d 494, 502 (N.J. 1995). If a plaintiff could have brought a related claim in a prior state court proceeding and failed to do so, he will be barred from bringing that claim in the future. He would not, however, be barred if the state court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the claim. See Nanavati v. Burdette Tomlin Mem’l Hosp., 857 F.2d 96, 112, 115 (3d Cir. 1988). The District Court determined that the RCRA claim was 47 sufficiently related to the claims brought by the Litgo Appellants in the 1996 proceedings that the entire controversy doctrine applied. It concluded that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over RCRA claims, so the claim could have been brought in the prior proceeding. The Litgo Appellants’ RCRA claims against the United States Appellees proceeded to trial. The Court found that the United States Appellees were liable under RCRA because they “contributed to the storage and disposal of hazardous wastes which have been linked to the contamination at the Litgo Property.” Litgo I, 2010 WL 2400388, at . It expressed doubt, however, as to whether injunctive relief was appropriate. It explained that the United States Appellees were not “currently taking any actions at the site that pose an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment and thus there is no need to ‘restrain’ [them].” Id. at . The Court decided not to enter an injunction at that time because it did “not feel that the issue of what injunctive relief would be appropriate has been sufficiently addressed by the parties.” Id. It explained that the issue of what, if any, injunctive relief should be granted could be addressed at the damages hearing. Before the hearing on damages, the United States Appellees and the Litgo Appellants entered into a settlement agreement. The Litgo Appellants dismissed their claim for injunctive relief under RCRA, but claimed to have “reserve[d] their right to seek litigation costs from the United States [Appellees] as a ‘prevailing party’ under Section 7002(e) of RCRA.” Supp. App. 8. The Litgo Appellants then moved for costs, which were denied. 48 The Litgo Appellants now challenge the District Court’s dismissal of their RCRA claim against the Sanzari Appellees and its denial of litigation costs. For the reasons that follow, we will reverse the District Court’s summary judgment in favor of the Sanzari Appellees and remand for further proceedings. We will affirm the District Court’s denial of costs and attorney’s fees.
The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Sanzari Appellees on the RCRA claim because it determined that state and federal courts have concurrent jurisdiction over RCRA claims, such that the claim was foreclosed by the entire controversy doctrine. Because we hold that federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over claims brought under RCRA, we will remand this claim for further proceedings. RCRA provides, in relevant part: Any action under paragraph (a)(1) of this subsection [permitting actions against alleged polluters] shall be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or the alleged endangerment may occur. Any action brought under paragraph (a)(2) of this subsection [permitting actions against the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] may be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or in the District Court of the District of Columbia. The district court shall have jurisdiction, without regard to 49 the amount in controversy or the citizenship of the parties, . . . to restrain any person who has contributed or who is contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste. 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a) (emphases added). The overwhelming majority of courts that have addressed this issue have read this provision to confer exclusive jurisdiction on federal courts, based on the statute’s instruction that RCRA claims “shall be brought” in a “district court.” See Blue Legs v. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, 867 F.2d 1094, 1098 (8th Cir. 1989); Interfaith Cmty. Org. Inc. v. PPG Indus., Inc., 702 F. Supp. 2d 295, 304 (D.N.J. 2010); Remington v. Mathson, 2010 WL 1233803, at –9 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2010); K-7 Enterprises, L.P. v. Jester, 562 F. Supp. 2d 819, 827 (E.D. Tex. 2007); Spillane v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 291 F. Supp. 2d 728, 732 (N.D. Ill. 2003); White & Brewer Trucking, Inc. v. Donley, 952 F. Supp. 1306, 1312 (C.D. Ill. 1997); Prisco v. New York, 1992 WL 88165, at  (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 22, 1992); Middlesex Cnty. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders v. N.J., Dept. of Envtl. Prot., 645 F. Supp. 715, 719 (D.N.J. 1986).13 The Sixth Circuit, in contrast, has found that RCRA 13 We have previously noted that the view that federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over RCRA claims “accords with that of most other courts to have considered the question.” See Raritan Baykeeper v. NL Indus., Inc., 660 F.3d 686, 693 (3d Cir. 2011). We did not thoroughly analyze this issue in Raritan Baykeeper, however, because both parties conceded that state courts did not have concurrent jurisdiction. Id. 50 does not confer exclusive jurisdiction on federal courts, Davis v. Sun Oil Co., 148 F.3d 606, 612 (6th Cir. 1998), and the District Court followed that path. Under our federal system, there is a “deeply rooted presumption in favor of concurrent state court jurisdiction.” Tafflin v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455, 459 (1990); see also Yellow Freight Sys., Inc. v. Donnelly, 494 U.S. 820, 823 (1990). This presumption “is, of course, rebutted if Congress affirmatively ousts the state courts of jurisdiction over a particular federal claim.” Tafflin, 493 U.S. at 459. Congress may divest state courts of jurisdiction “either explicitly or implicitly,” although its intent to do so must be clear. Id. (quoting Gulf Offshore Co. v. Mobil Oil Corp., 453 U.S. 473, 478 (1981). Thus, exclusive jurisdiction may be conferred “by an explicit statutory directive, by unmistakable implication from legislative history, or by a clear incompatibility between state-court jurisdiction and federal interests.” Id. at 459–60 (quoting Gulf Offshore, 453 U.S. at 478)). We agree with the majority of courts that have addressed this issue that the language of § 6972(a) unambiguously demonstrates that federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over RCRA claims. The statute provides that RCRA claims “shall be brought” in a “district court.” As used in this context, “shall be brought” is most naturally read as a mandate; the suit must be brought in a district court. See Middlesex Cnty. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders, 645 F. Supp. at 719 (citing United States v. Kravitz, 738 F.2d 102, 104 (3d Cir. 1984)). When written in the United States Code, “district court” refers to federal, not state, trial courts. Indeed, other statutes instructing parties to file suit in a “district court” involve exclusively federal 51 claims.14 A provision stating that plaintiffs must file in federal court is sufficient to establish that federal courts have exclusive federal jurisdiction. See Tafflin, 493 U.S. at 471 (Scalia, J., concurring) (“In the standard fields of exclusive federal jurisdiction, the governing statutes specifically recite 14 See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a) (CERCLA) (action “shall be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or the alleged endangerment may occur”) and 42 U.S.C. § 9613(b) (federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over CERCLA actions); 28 U.S.C. § 1402(d) (“Any civil action under section 2409a to quiet title to an estate or interest in real property in which an interest is claimed by the United States shall be brought in the district court of the district where the property is located or, if located in different districts, in any of such districts.”); 28 U.S.C. § 1403 (eminent domain) (“Proceedings to condemn real estate for the use of the United States or its departments or agencies shall be brought in the district court of the district where the land is located or, if located in different districts in the same State, in any of such districts.”); 39 U.S.C. § 3012(b)(1) (civil action brought by the post office) (“Any such action shall be brought in the district court of the United States for the district in which the defendant resides or receives mail.”) and 28 U.S.C. § 1355(a) (granting federal courts exclusive jurisdiction over fines and penalties incurred under federal statute). When concurrent jurisdiction exists, litigants are not similarly limited to district courts. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3) (Title VII) (“Such an action may be brought in any judicial district in the State in which the unlawful employment practice is alleged to have been committed . . . .”). 52 that suit may be brought ‘only’ in federal court; that the jurisdiction of federal courts shall be ‘exclusive,’ or indeed even that the jurisdiction of the federal courts shall be ‘exclusive of the courts of the States’” (emphasis added) (internal citations omitted) (citing the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. § 80a-35(b)(5), as an example of a statute that divested state courts of jurisdiction by directing plaintiffs to file suit in a United States district court)); cf. id. at 460–61 (explaining that a provision stating that a person “may sue . . . in any appropriate United States district court” did not suggest that federal courts had exclusive jurisdiction, because “[i]t provides that suits of the kind described ‘may’ be brought in the federal district courts, not that they must be” (emphasis added)).15 The Sanzari Appellees, relying on the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Davis, argue that the Supreme Court has previously determined that language similar to the language in RCRA does not deprive the state courts of jurisdiction. In Yellow Freight, the Supreme Court addressed whether state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over claims arising under Title VII, which provides: 15 Although Congress could have explicitly used the phrase “exclusive jurisdiction”—and often does so—we reject our dissenting colleague’s suggestion that statutes must invoke a “talismanic term” to divest state courts of jurisdiction. Dissenting Op. at 7. Such a requirement contravenes the Supreme Court’s repeated instruction that Congress may explicitly or implicitly divest state courts of jurisdiction. See Tafflin, 493 U.S. at 459 (quoting Gulf Offshore, 453 U.S. at 478). 53 Each United States district court and each United States court of a place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall have jurisdiction of actions brought under this subchapter. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3) (emphasis added). The Supreme Court held that this language did not “expressly confine[] jurisdiction to the federal courts or oust[] state courts of their presumptive jurisdiction.” Yellow Freight, 494 U.S. at 823. The Sanzari Appellees argue that the same reasoning applies to the text of RCRA, and the Sixth Circuit expressed the same view in Davis, opining: The “shall have” language [in Title VII] was not deemed to be sufficient evidence that Congress intended to divest the state courts of jurisdiction over those matters. In the same way, the “shall” language in the RCRA enforcement provision does not grant exclusive jurisdiction to the federal courts in suits brought pursuant thereto. Davis, 148 F.3d at 612. The similarities between the language at issue in Title VII (“shall have jurisdiction”) and RCRA (“shall be brought in the district court”) are, at best, superficial. The former is merely a grant of authority; nothing in the statement “Each United States district court . . . shall have jurisdiction” is inconsistent with concurrent jurisdiction. See Gulf Offshore Co., 453 U.S. at 479 (“It is black letter law . . . that the mere grant of jurisdiction to a federal court does not operate to oust a state court from concurrent jurisdiction over the cause of 54 action.”). The latter is, by contrast, an order requiring litigants to bring RCRA claims in a district court.16 The Sanzari Appellees argue, and our dissenting colleague agrees, that this phrase could be read to mean that “if a citizen suit claim is brought in federal court, then it must 16 The Sixth Circuit’s decision in Davis has been criticized in several academic journals. See Jason M. Levy, Note, Conflicting Enforcement Mechanisms Under RCRA: The Abstention Battleground Between State Agencies and Citizen Suits, 39 Ecology L.Q. 373, 398 (2012) (describing Davis as a “curious decision” that “defies logic”); A. Mark Segreti, Jr., RCRA Citizen Suits and State Courts: Jurisdictional Trap After Davis v. Sun Oil Company, 19 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 73, 92−93 (2001) (“The court did not consider the total phrase ‘shall be brought in the district court for the district,’ apparently not seeing the significance of a mandatory designation of a court, as opposed to merely conferring jurisdiction on the court by stating that the courts ‘shall have’ jurisdiction.”); Charlotte Gibson, Note, Citizen Suits Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act: Plotting Abstention on a Map of Federalism, 98 Mich. L. Rev. 269, 282 (1999) (remarking that “Title VII’s jurisdictional provision is easily distinguishable from RCRA’s”). Even the commentator cited by the dissent, who approved of the result in Davis, has described the Sixth Circuit’s reasoning as “doubtful,” given the differences between the provision in Title VII and the language used in RCRA. Christopher S. Elmendorf, Note, State Courts, Citizen Suits, and the Enforcement of Federal Environmental Law by Non-Article III Plaintiffs, 110 Yale L.J. 1003, 1017 (2001). 55 be brought in the district where the violation or alleged endangerment occurred, rather than the district where a defendant may be subject to personal jurisdiction,” Sanzari Br. 65 (citing Davis v. Sun Oil Co., 953 F. Supp. 890, 895 (S.D. Ohio 1996)); Dissenting Op. at 10−11 (quoting Christopher S. Elmendorf, Note, State Courts, Citizen Suits, and the Enforcement of Federal Environmental Law by NonArticle III Plaintiffs, 110 Yale L.J. 1003, 1007 (2001)). The problem with this interpretation, however, is that the statutory language is plainly unconditional. The statute does not instruct claimants on what to do “if” they file in federal court. Instead, it mandates: “Any action under paragraph (a)(1) of this subsection shall be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or the alleged endangerment may occur.” 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a) (emphasis added); see also Elmendorf, supra at 1017 (“[T]he RCRA citizen-suit provision, if read literally, affirmatively requires citizens to bring their claim in one particular and presumably federal court (the district court for the judicial district in which the alleged violation occurred).”).17 17 The law review note on which the dissent relies argues that the RCRA provision is ambiguous because it uses the phrase “district court” instead of the phrase “United States district court.” This ambiguity, the note contends, permits courts to read the provision as conditional. It suggests that a statute with a similar provision—the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—likely could not be read as conditional because it uses the phrase “United States district court” instead. 56 In stating that citizen suits “shall be brought in the United States district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred,” TSCA resolves the ambiguity in RCRA and comes as close as a statute can to reserving jurisdiction expressly to the federal courts without use of the phrase “exclusive jurisdiction.” To find that TSCA confers state court jurisdiction, one would have to abandon plain meanings altogether, massaging the word “shall” until it acquires the shape of “may.” Elmendorf, supra at 1019. Because “district court,” in fact, unambiguously refers to federal courts, we do not find this distinction to be persuasive. We “would have to abandon plain meanings altogether” to find that parties may bring a RCRA claim in state court. The dissent further suggests that our interpretation of the statute could have strange results, as “RCRA does not consistently use the term ‘shall’ while dictating the procedures for filing a citizen complaint.” Dissenting Op. at 11. It claims that our interpretation may implicitly permit suits against the EPA or other agencies in state court, even though plaintiffs may only bring suits against polluters in federal district court. Although we need not reach the issue of whether suits brought against the EPA can be brought in state court in this case, we note that we do not think that this result necessarily follows from the text of the statute. As explained above, RCRA provides: Any action under paragraph (a)(1) of this subsection [permitting actions against alleged 57 polluters] shall be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or the alleged endangerment may occur. Any action brought under paragraph (a)(2) of this subsection [permitting actions against the administrator of the EPA] may be brought in the district court for the district in which the alleged violation occurred or in the District Court of the District of Columbia. 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a). Read as a whole, the provision may use “shall” in the first sentence because plaintiffs filing suits against polluters have only one choice—they must file suit in the district court in the district where the violation occurred. The use of “may” in the second sentence could simply suggest that plaintiffs filing against the EPA administrator, in contrast, have two choices—the district court in the district where the violation occurred, or the District Court for the District of Columbia. The two provisions, taken together, do not necessarily suggest that a plaintiff could file suit against an agency in the district court in the district where the violation occurred, in the District Court for the District of Columbia, or in a state court. Other statutes that have been interpreted as permissive have been stand-alone provisions; they have not been found in a similar context. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c) (statute found to be permissive in Charles Dowd Box, Co. v. Courtney, 368 U.S. 502 (1962), which states only that suits “may” be brought “in any appropriate United States district court”); 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3) (Telephone Consumer Protection Act). 58 Because the New Jersey state court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the RCRA claim, the District Court erred in determining that the entire controversy doctrine applied and in granting summary judgment to the Sanzari Appellees on that basis. Thus, we will reverse this aspect of the District Court’s order and remand for further proceedings. 18
The Litgo Appellants also claim that the District Court erred in denying their request for an award of $4,751,201.88 in litigation costs, including attorney’s fees, against the 18 The dissent claims that our approach will “‘result in a significant impingement of the States’ traditional and primary power over land and water use,’ thus disrupting the balance of state and federal regulation over state, county, and local pollution that both Congress and the Supreme Court have recognized and respected.” Dissenting Op. at 3−4 (internal citation omitted) (quoting Solid Waste Agency of N. Cook Cnty. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159, 174 (2001)). We disagree. We hold only that the rights provided by RCRA’s citizen suit provision must be enforced in federal court. This holding does not prevent New Jersey from enforcing its own environmental statutes and common law. See 42 U.S.C. § 6972(f) (“Nothing in this section shall restrict any right which any person (or class of persons) may have under any statute or common law to seek enforcement of any standard or requirement relating to the management of solid waste or hazardous waste, or to seek any other relief (including relief against the Administrator or a State agency).”). 59 United States Appellees. Although RCRA gives courts discretion to award a “prevailing or substantially prevailing party” litigation costs, see 42 U.S.C. § 6972(e), the District Court refused to grant such an award here, in part because it determined that the Litgo Appellants were not prevailing or substantially prevailing parties. 19 We will affirm on that basis. To have “prevailed” or “substantially prevailed” on their claims, the Litgo Appellants must have “secure[d] a material alteration of [their] legal relationship” with the United States Appellees—that is, they must have obtained some kind of judicial relief. NAACP v. N. Hudson Reg’l Fire & Rescue, 665 F.3d 464, 486 n.12 (3d Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted) (prevailing party); United States v. Craig, 694 F.3d 509, 512 (3d Cir. 2012) (substantially prevailing party); see also Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W. Va. Dep’t of Health & Human Res., 532 U.S. 598, 606 (2001). A party who “has failed to secure a judgment on the merits or a court-ordered consent decree, but has nonetheless achieved the desired result because the lawsuit brought about a voluntary change in the defendant’s conduct” is not a prevailing party. Buckhannon Bd., 532 U.S. at 600 (“[W]e have not awarded attorney’s fees where the plaintiff has . . . acquired a judicial pronouncement that the defendant has violated the Constitution unaccompanied by ‘judicial 19 The District Court further determined that an award of litigation costs would be inappropriate for equitable reasons. Because we agree with the District Court that the Litgo Appellants were not prevailing or substantially prevailing parties, we need not address this alternative holding. 60 relief,’” id. at 605–06 (internal citations omitted)); see also Hewitt v. Helms, 482 U.S. 755, 760 (1987) (“Respect for ordinary language requires that a plaintiff receive at least some relief on the merits of his claim before he can be said to prevail.”). The District Court found that the United States Appellees were liable parties under RCRA. It did not, however, grant relief on that claim. Instead, it reserved the question of “what, if any, injunctive relief is appropriate” for the hearing on damages. Litgo I, 2010 WL 2400388, at  n.36. The Litgo Appellants and the United States Appellees then entered into a settlement agreement, so the District Court never decided whether injunctive relief was proper. Because the Litgo Appellants never obtained judicial relief on their CERCLA claim, the District Court correctly found that they are not entitled to litigation costs.