Opinion ID: 762390
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Existence of a Federally Protectable Property Right

Text: 30 Though the error in the jury instruction requires invalidation of the judgment, retrial is not necessary in this case because, as a matter of law, Natale does not have a federally protectable property right in the permits for which he applied. 31 Before a plaintiff seeks to prove that a state official's denial of a permit deprived him of a property right in the permit in violation of the standards of substantive due process, as explicated above, he must first establish that he has a federally protectable property right in the permit. This requires a demonstration that he had a clear entitlement to the permit under state law. See Walz, 46 F.3d at 167-68; RRI Realty, 870 F.2d at 917-18; Yale Auto Parts, 758 F.2d at 58-59. Usually, entitlement turns on whether the issuing authority lacks discretion to deny the permit, i.e., is required to issue it upon ascertainment that certain objectively ascertainable criteria have been met. There is no reason, however, to restrict the uncertainty that will preclude existence of a federally protectable property interest to the uncertainty that inheres in an exercise of discretion. Uncertainty as to the meaning of applicable law also suffices. 1 Indeed, if uncertainty as to the law did not preclude recognition of a federally protectable property interest, permit claimants would regularly be entitled to present to federal courts their disputes concerning the interpretation of local and state land use regulations. Just as federal courts are not to be turned into zoning boards of appeals, see Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, 416 U.S. 1, 13, 94 S.Ct. 1536, 39 L.Ed.2d 797 (1974) (Marshall, J. dissenting), they are also not to be substituted for state courts as adjudicators of the meaning of zoning and other land use regulations, see RRI Realty, 870 F.2d at 918 (If federal courts are not to ... substitute for state courts in their state law review of land-use regulatory decisions[ ], the entitlement test of Yale Auto Parts ... must be applied with considerable rigor.). In almost all cases, the existence of a federally protectable property right is an issue of law for the court. See id. Since the existence of such a right in this case does not turn on any disputed facts, it was error to submit the property right issue to the jury. 32 In this case, Natale's entitlement to the permits he sought turned ultimately on the resolution of the parties' state law dispute as to whether Natale had grandfathered subdivision rights. That issue turned on the meaning of section 8-18 and an interpretation of the state court decision in Sherman-Colonial. As we noted in Natale I, the meaning and effect of the decision in Sherman-Colonial was a legitimate dispute. 927 F.2d at 105. That dispute was resolved by the state court in favor of Natale, see Natale v. Bogardus, supra, and the last permit that Natale had sought was issued promptly thereafter. Though the state court that finally determined that new subdivision approval was not required for Lot 95 (the only one for which permits had been applied) issued a writ of mandamus, its conclusion that Natale's right was sufficiently clear to warrant mandamus relief as a matter of state law does not establish that Natale's entitlement to permits was so clear as to accord him a federally protectable property right in those permits. The state court issued mandamus only after it made a refined analysis of two state statutes and a state Supreme Court decision, thereby resolving an issue that had previously been a legitimate dispute. 33 The Municipal Defendants contend that our recognition of qualified immunity for the chairman of the PZC in Natale I necessarily means that Natale lacked a federally protectable property right. As they point out, our prior decision noted the legal uncertainty as to whether the permit applications should have been granted, see 927 F.2d at 105, and concluded that, in light of this uncertainty, the PZC chairman could reasonably assume that the Commission could require the Natales to obtain subdivision approval before the requested permits were issued, id. That same legal uncertainty, the defendants contend, defeats the Natales' claim to a federally protectable property interest in the permits. 34 Though uncertainty as to an officer's legal obligation to issue permits, for purposes of qualified immunity, is not necessarily identical to uncertainty as to an applicant's entitlement to permits, for purposes of a federally protectable property interest in the permits, the dispute as to the meaning of state and local law in this case was sufficiently in doubt both to support qualified immunity and to defeat the existence of a federally protectable property right. 35 In light of this conclusion, we need not consider the Municipal Defendants' additional challenges to the judgment.