Opinion ID: 488133
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Computation of the City's Contribution

Text: 22 The district court concluded that Dothan's contribution to Project 31 was not significantly out of line with prior projects primarily because it found that the city had contributed 30.2% of the total costs to Project 31 and the average city contribution to special projects since 1949 was 31.43%. 10 Plaintiffs argue that this finding is clearly erroneous because it artificially inflates Dothan's contribution to Project 31 by including in its computation of the city's contribution the costs for related project improvements that would not be assessed against property owners and the costs for sewer improvements, both of which were not assessed in previous projects. Dothan's contribution to Project 31 would have been 14.8% if the court had not included non-assessed related project improvements and sewer improvements in its computation. Plaintiffs contend that this last figure more accurately reflects Dothan's actual contribution to Project 31 in comparison with previous projects. 11 We agree. 23 Dothan admitted in response to a Fed.R.Civ.P. 36 request for an admission of fact that its contribution to Project 30 was 48.7%. This figure does not include non-assessed related project improvements. Because Dothan never sought to withdraw or amend its admission, the court was not free to reject this conclusively established fact even if it [found] more credible the evidence of the party against whom the admissions operate. Brooks Village N. Assocs. v. General Elec. Co., 686 F.2d 66, 73 (1st Cir.1982). Dothan's argument that plaintiffs were not prejudiced by the district court's computation and that a later admission explained that its prior admission was simply based on the Project 30 assessment roll, which did not include non-assessed related project improvements, does not change the conclusive effect of its prior admission, which admitted the city's contribution without any explanation or qualification. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 36. The district court therefore erred by including the costs of non-assessed related project improvements and sewer improvements in Dothan's contribution to Project 31 when the city's contribution to Project 30 was conclusively established excluding these costs. 24 Moreover, non-assessed related project improvements were not included on special project assessment rolls prior to Project 31 and, therefore, should not be included in computing the city's contribution to Project 31 for purposes of comparison with previous projects. Although Dothan contends that the evidence does not demonstrate conclusively that previous projects did not include related project improvements, it can point to only one project, Project 14, in which the assessment roll may have included related project improvements. The related project improvements in Project 14, however, are significantly different from the related project improvements in Project 31. In Project 14 the related project improvements involved lowering and repairing water mains and sanitary sewers to accommodate the construction and paving of the streets and therefore were assessable against the property owners. In contrast, the related improvements in Project 31 involved the construction of new water mains and sanitary sewer improvements independent of the construction and paving of the streets. Thus, they were not a necessary part of the assessment project and therefore were not assessable. 25 The inclusion of Dothan's cost for related project improvements to the water and sewer systems as part of the city's contribution to Project 31 is inconsistent with the city's established practice of providing these services independent of any special assessment project. Dothan has never assessed property owners for water system improvements. Nor has it required that such water system improvements be completed as part of any special assessment project. Prior to 1977 Dothan constructed sewer system improvements at no cost to the property owner and without regard to whether a special assessment project was involved. Although Dothan now assesses property owners for sewer system improvements, the inclusion of Dothan's costs for such improvements in the computation of the city's contribution to Project 31, where such costs were not included in previous projects, inaccurately increased the city's contribution to Project 31 as compared to previous projects. By including the costs of non-assessed related project improvements and sewer improvements in the city's contribution to Project 31, the district court artificially inflated Dothan's contribution to the project and therefore inaccurately evaluated the discriminatory effect of Project 31 on plaintiffs. 26 Prior to 1975 Dothan discriminated against its black citizens in the provision of government services. Yelverton, 370 F.Supp. at 618-19. The black residential neighborhoods in Dothan had significantly fewer paved streets and less sewer service than predominantly white neighborhoods. Project 31 was the first major project since Yelverton in a primarily black residential neighborhood. 12 27 The Yelverton order required Dothan to extend government services to black neighborhoods. Black citizens participated in Project 31 in large numbers. As we have described, in previous projects white citizens had been able to procure sewer improvements for which the city paid the entire costs and street paving to which the city contributed an average of 31.43% of the final costs, while in Project 31 the city agreed to contribute only 14.8% of the total costs. 13 Although Dothan did not decrease its contribution to Project 31 because of any intent to discriminate against blacks, the end result was discriminatory--blacks had to pay a higher percentage of the costs for paving and sewer improvements in Project 31 than whites had to pay for similar improvements in past assessment projects. 14 Project 31 therefore had a discriminatory effect on blacks as compared to whites in previous assessment projects.