Opinion ID: 779790
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Misrepresentation, bad faith, threats, and corruption

Text: 27 AFB contends that Noerr- Pennington immunity should not apply because RFA organized and conducted a smear campaign against it, misrepresented information, made threats, and engaged in corrupt practices. There is no officially recognized Noerr immunity exception for any of these activities, but we will nevertheless address them as elements of the contention that RFA conducted an improper lobbying effort. Misrepresentation 28 AFB presented no evidence that RFA deliberately made false and material representations in the course of its lobbying effort. See Hospital Bldg. Co. v. Trustees of Rex Hosp., 691 F.2d 678, 687 (4th Cir.1982) (stating that misrepresentations, to fall within the sham exception to Noerr immunity must be made with the requisite intent). See also Whelan v. Abell, 48 F.3d 1247 (D.C.Cir.1995) (finding that even if litigation is not baseless the defendant is not entitled to Noerr immunity if it deliberately made false and material representations). 29 AFB's president testified generally that RFA presented false, half-true, and disparaging statements concerning longline fishing. The district court addressed four matters allegedly misrepresented by RFA: (1) that the City was bringing a big longline fishing fleet from Florida, (2) that there would be new boats operating out of the Maritime Center, (3) that the City was subsidizing longline fishing, and (4) that AFB was destroying natural resources by allowing longliners to dock at the Maritime Center. The same allegations were made in AFB's defamation claim. 30 There is no merit to AFB's allegation regarding the effect of longliners on natural resources. Ample evidence indicates that longlining may be destructive to marine resources. Thousands of pages of federal statutes, regulations, and proposed regulations have been created in an attempt to balance the nation's interest in protecting its fisheries against harms caused by longlining and other commercial fishing methods. Whether the harm is as great as RFA asserts, and whether it is balanced by the interests of the longline industry and the public's interest in longline fishing as a food source, do not obviate the fact that destruction of resources occurs. RFA cannot lose its Noerr protection for taking a position on this hotly debated topic. 31 RFA made no representation of fact that was not substantially true or reported by news agencies independent of RFA prior to RFA's arrival in Charleston. Many of the facts alleged by AFB as false were contained in a March 22, 1997 newspaper article written two months before RFA's arrival. This article stated that AFB hoped to attract as many as 30 swordfish boats, shrimp trawlers and other fishing vessels to the Maritime Center. The president of AFB testified that he hoped to attract to Charleston vessels that historically had done business with him at other locations. 32 Other statements allegedly misrepresented by RFA were made by AFB or its representatives. In his deposition AFB owner Vince Pyle stated that at least one longline vessel fishing in South Carolina waters hailed out of Florida. At a mass meeting on May 5 Pyle acknowledged the nomadic nature of longline vessels that work the Atlantic from Florida to North Carolina. AFB's own operational proposals stated that it planned to dock a fleet of longliners at the Maritime Center. There were no misrepresentations. Threats and Corruption 33 James Donofrio, the president of RFA, contacted Pyle, the president of AFB, and told him that he would call off the dogs and cease lobbying against longliners docking at the Maritime Center if Pyle would agree not to bring longliners to the dock. According to Pyle, Donofrio claimed to have the power and connections to keep AFB out of the Maritime Center or to persuade those opposing it to withdraw their opposition if it would dock longliner vessels at another site. Pyle informed Donofrio that the AFB proposal was not financially feasible if longliners were not included, and rejected Donofrio's offer. CHP's name did not come up in this conversation. AFB sees this as a threat and a corrupt attempt to make a deal on behalf of CHP. The district court did not err in finding that this was only a conversation about settlement negotiations. 34 RFA wrote a letter to the mayor, thanking him for challenging the done deal with AFB [referring to the first selection of AFB] and recommending the acceptance of CHP as operator. This was insufficient to establish a conspiratorial relationship. A lobbying group may make recommendations through its lobbying campaign. We have previously described the mayor's change of mind about longlining. He publicly acknowledged that he had changed his mind and explained why. 35 AFB presented no evidence of bribes or blackmail or of any other corruption or impropriety engaged in by RFA to taint the governmental process in Charleston. In deposition testimony PRC commissioners Virgil Passailaigue and Tim Eubanks testified that nothing inappropriate or corrupt occurred during RFA's lobbying campaign. There is no substantial evidence of corruption in the City's own processes or of corrupt actions by RFA. Bad Faith 36 RFA is a lobbying entity. Rightly or wrongly, it perceives longline fishing as depletion and mismanagement of resources by an industry that it considers antagonistic to its goals, and it considers governmental management of fisheries as ineffective. It joined in the efforts of others having a common purpose. It had a protected right to petition the government, and plaintiffs have not shown a sufficient basis to strip it of Noerr-Pennington immunity. 37 AFB charged that RFA acted in bad faith because it was directly opposed to AFB rather than to longlining in general, therefore Noerr protection is inapplicable. As we have held, inquiring into the subjective rationale of RFA's lobbying campaign would be appropriate only if the campaign was objectively baseless. RFA could reasonably expect, and did achieve, a successful lobbying effort. See Professional Real Estate, 508 U.S. 49, 113 S.Ct. 1920, 123 L.Ed.2d 611.