Opinion ID: 215922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Statutory Issues Under RCRA

Text: RCRA's violation provision permits any person to commence a lawsuit against any other person or entity who is alleged to be in violation of any permit, standard, regulation, condition, requirement, prohibition or order which has become effective pursuant to [RCRA]. 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a)(1)(A). After notice is given, a citizen suit cannot be commenced if the Administrator or State has commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil or criminal action in a court of the United States or a State to require compliance with such permit, standard, regulation, condition, requirement, prohibition, or order. 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B). VIM argues that both the first and second IDEM lawsuits trigger RCRA's statutory bar and prohibit the plaintiffs' RCRA violation claim. We hold otherwise. [2]
The parties and the district court treated the statutory bar issue as a question of subject matter jurisdiction. This was incorrect. In a series of recent cases under many different federal statutes, the Supreme Court has repeatedly reminded the lower courts of the narrow scope of truly jurisdictional rules and the broader category of ordinary claims processing rules. Jurisdiction means nothing more and nothing less than a court's adjudicatory authority. Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 130 S.Ct. 1237, 1243, 176 L.Ed.2d 18 (2010) (holding that requirement to register copyright before bringing suit was not jurisdictional), quoting Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443, 455, 124 S.Ct. 906, 157 L.Ed.2d 867 (2004) (holding that time limit for creditors to file objections to discharge in bankruptcy was not jurisdictional). The jurisdictional category applies only to `prescriptions delineating the classes of cases (subject matter jurisdiction) and the persons (personal jurisdiction)' implicating that authority. Id., quoting Kontrick, 540 U.S. at 445, 124 S.Ct. 906. The distinction is vital. Treating a rule as jurisdictional alters the normal operation of our adversarial system in which courts address the claims and arguments. Henderson v. Shinseki, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 131 S.Ct. 1197, 1202, 179 L.Ed.2d 159 (2011) (deadline for filing notice of appeal with Veterans Court is not jurisdictional). If a rule is genuinely jurisdictional, a federal court has an obligation to raise and decide the issue itself even if the parties do not. A jurisdictional question may be raised at any time, including for the first time on appeal, causing unfairness to the parties and wasting the efforts spent on the litigation to that point. Id. Congress can specify that a particular claims-processing rule is jurisdictional, but it is clear that the Supreme Court is not expanding the category of jurisdictional rules without explicit indications from Congress that it intended such drastic results. The RCRA prohibition on bringing a citizen suit when the EPA or a state agency has commenced and is diligently prosecuting an action to require compliance with the same permit, standard, or other requirement falls into the category of claims-processing rules. Congress could have made the prohibition expressly jurisdictional, but neither the general federal question jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, nor RCRA's jurisdictional grant, 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a), specifies any threshold jurisdictional requirement. RCRA's limits on citizen suits appear in separate provisions that do not speak in jurisdictional terms or refer in any way to the jurisdiction of the district courts. See Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385, 394, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982) (Title VII requirement for filing charge with EEOC did not limit jurisdiction); 42 U.S.C. §§ 6972(b)(1), (b)(2). [W]hen Congress does not rank a statutory limitation on coverage as jurisdictional, courts should treat the restriction as nonjurisdictional in character. Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 516, 126 S.Ct. 1235, 163 L.Ed.2d 1097 (2006) (Title VII requirement for number of employees is element of a claim but not a requirement for subject matter jurisdiction). [3] The plaintiffs in this case have alleged colorable claims for relief directly under RCRA. Even if those claims are not successful, whether because of a statutory bar or for some other reason, they were substantial enough to give the district court subject matter jurisdiction over the case, including supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' state law claims. See, e.g., Rabé v. United Air Lines, Inc., 636 F.3d 866, 868-70 (7th Cir.2011) (reversing dismissal of Title VII claim for lack of jurisdiction; whether international employee was covered by statute went to merits rather than jurisdiction), citing Greater Chicago Combine and Center, Inc. v. City of Chicago, 431 F.3d 1065, 1070 (7th Cir. 2005) (affirming summary judgment on merits of federal constitutional claims that raised substantial federal questions); Gammon v. GC Services Ltd. Partnership, 27 F.3d 1254, 1256 (7th Cir.1994) (reversing dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction where plaintiff alleged substantial federal claim). Another factor that supports this treatment of the RCRA limit on citizen suits is the fact that the limit is not absolute. It has the potential to ebb and flow depending on whether the government agency is diligently prosecuting an earlier lawsuit. 42 U.S.C. §§ 6972(b)(1)(B), (b)(2)(B)(i), (b)(2)(C)(i). Subject matter jurisdiction, on the other hand, is usually thought of in binary terms. It either exists or it does not. It might disappear because of a change of circumstances, but it's hard to fit into the concept of subject matter jurisdiction the idea that the ability to pursue the citizen suit could disappear, return, and disappear again, depending on the government agency's changing approach to its own enforcement action.
With subject matter jurisdiction secure, we treat VIM's motion as one to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Our review of Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss is de novo. We construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, accepting as true all well-pled facts alleged, taking judicial notice of matters within the public record, and drawing all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs' favor. See General Electric Capital Corp. v. Lease Resolution Corp., 128 F.3d 1074, 1080-81 (7th Cir.1997) (permitting courts to take judicial notice of matters of public record without converting a Rule 12(b)(6) motion into a motion for summary judgment). Under this standard, we turn to VIM's statutory bar arguments. Because the issue is so straightforward, we address first the effect of the second IDEM suit, which was filed after the plaintiffs filed this RCRA citizen suit. The district court found that the plaintiffs' RCRA violation claim in their earlier citizen suit was barred by that second IDEM lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B). That conclusion is contrary to the plain language of subsection (b)(1)(B). Subsection (b)(1)(B) says that a citizen's violation action may not be commenced if the EPA or state agency has commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil or criminal action in a court of the United States or a State.... The statute prohibits only commencement of a citizen suit, not the continued prosecution of such an action that has already been filed. It operates to prohibit commencement of a citizen suit only if the government has commenced and is diligently prosecuting its own action, and not, for example, if the government  commences and begins diligently prosecuting. The verb tenses make clear that subsection (b)(1)(B) bars a RCRA citizen suit for a RCRA violation only if the suit was commenced after the government has commenced a lawsuit, not if the citizen suit was filed first. This conclusion follows our interpretation of the identical statutory language for citizen suits under the Clean Water Act (CWA) in Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers v. Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Dist., 382 F.3d 743 (7th Cir.2004). Like RCRA, the CWA prohibits a citizen from commencing a citizen suit if the Administrator or State has commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil or criminal action in a court of the United States, or a State.... 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1)(B). In Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers we held that a state enforcement action filed mere hours after a CWA citizen suit was filed did not bar the citizen action. See 382 F.3d at 754-55. We explained that our holding was dictated by the clear and unambiguous language of the CWA's preemption provision. Id.; see also PMC, Inc. v. Sherwin-Williams Co., 151 F.3d 610, 618-19 (7th Cir.1998) (defendant's argument that Illinois's preliminary and informal administrative acts were sufficient to bar a later-filed citizen suit could not override RCRA's plain statutory text that only an action has the barring effect); Chesapeake Bay Foundation v. American Recovery Co., 769 F.2d 207, 208-09 (4th Cir.1985) (CWA citizen suit filed three hours before state agency suit was entitled to proceed based on plain language used in verb tenses). Given the identical language in RCRA in section § 6972(b)(1)(B) and the CWA in 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1)(B), we see no reason to hold otherwise here. The district court reached its different conclusion based on River Village West, LLC v. Peoples Gas Light and Coke Co., 618 F.Supp.2d 847 (N.D.Ill.2008). The issue in that case was whether a citizen suit was precluded under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) § 113(h), 42 U.S.C. § 9613(h), which expressly limits federal courts' subject matter jurisdiction to bar legal challenges to a removal or remedial action by the EPA. The district court in River Village West relied upon CERCLA section 113(h) to use a later-filed suit to bar an earlier-filed citizen suit under RCRA. See 618 F.Supp.2d at 852-53. CERCLA section 113(h) uses different language that does not include the temporal limits found in the RCRA and CWA on citizen suits. Accordingly, the analysis in River Village West could not extend to this case without some showing that CERCLA section 113(h) also applies here. Neither VIM nor the district court has offered a theory for doing so. Without approving or disapproving the analysis in River Village West on its own merits, its analysis does not support the decision to treat the second IDEM suit as a bar to this RCRA citizen suit. The later-filed second IDEM suit does not restrict the plaintiffs' ability to pursue this citizen suit.
We turn next to the effect of the first IDEM suit, which was filed before the plaintiffs filed their citizen suit. Under the terms of 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B), the earlier government action bars this suit if it was a suit to require compliance with such permit, standard, regulation, condition, requirement, prohibition, or order, i.e., if it sought to require compliance with the same requirements that the plaintiffs seek to enforce in this suit. If it was, then the plaintiffs' citizen suit is barred under RCRA. If it was not, then RCRA allows the two suits to proceed simultaneously. Based on a close examination of the lawsuits, including the state court's rejection of the plaintiffs' efforts to pursue their claims by intervening in the first IDEM suit, we conclude that RCRA allows the plaintiffs to pursue their claims that are beyond the scope of the first IDEM suit. We look to the plaintiffs' federal complaint and we take judicial notice of matters within the public record: specifically, the 2007 Agreed Order between VIM and IDEM, IDEM's complaint in its first suit, court documents associated with the plaintiffs' intervention in the first IDEM suit, and documents from the second IDEM suit. [4] The first IDEM suit sought enforcement of the IDEM/VIM Agreed Order, which, in turn, dealt primarily with dumping, processing, and disposal of C grade waste and waste piles. See AO ¶¶ II(3), (4), (5), (6), (9). In this case, the plaintiffs allege RCRA violations that are based in part on VIM's dumping, processing, and disposal of C grade waste. See Complaint ¶ 168(a)-(e). To the extent that the plaintiffs' RCRA claims overlap with the claims IDEM asserted in its first suit with respect to the C grade waste, the district court found, and we agree, that they cannot be pursued in this citizen action because of 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B). But to the extent that the plaintiffs' claims do not overlap with those asserted in the first IDEM suit, the plaintiffs' claims are not precluded under 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B). The plaintiffs' RCRA claims in this federal citizen suit also seek relief for A grade waste, B grade waste, and other types of solid waste that were not expressly addressed by IDEM's allegations in its first suit. VIM argues in this federal suit, and the district court found, that IDEM's different grades of waste are not different at all but fall under the general umbrella of solid waste. Following this logic, VIM would have us conclude that the first IDEM suit, which addressed only the C grade waste, actually encompassed the other types of waste as well, and its scope completely overlaps the violation claims in the plaintiffs' RCRA citizen suit. Three aspects of the record undermine VIM's argument. First, when the plaintiffs attempted to intervene in IDEM's 2008 lawsuit, VIM successfully objected to their attempts to broaden the scope of that suit beyond the C grade waste to address the other solid wastes that VIM was dumping and processing at the Elkhart site. The state court sustained VIM's objection and prevented the plaintiffs from expanding the scope of the case beyond the allegations of IDEM's complaint to bring in their additional claims. If the plaintiffs' proposed claims had truly overlapped IDEM's allegations in their entirety, VIM's objection (and the court's ruling) would have been moot. Having convinced the state court to limit the case to IDEM's narrower C grade waste allegations, VIM cannot be permitted to take the opposite position in federal court and claim that there is no difference between the cases. This conclusion applies the familiar equitable principle of judicial estoppel: a party who prevails on one ground in a prior proceeding cannot turn around and deny that ground in a later proceeding. E.g., Butler v. Village of Round Lake Police Dep't, 585 F.3d 1020, 1022-23 (7th Cir.2009); Levinson v. United States, 969 F.2d 260, 264-65 (7th Cir. 1992). VIM is simply trying to have it both ways. We reject the tactic and conclude that IDEM's allegations in its 2008 lawsuit do not seek to require compliance with such permit, standard, regulation, condition, requirement, prohibition or order that the plaintiffs seek to enforce in their RCRA citizen suit. Second, the plaintiffs' RCRA allegations in this case encompass A grade waste. A grade waste is regulated as a solid waste under RCRA but is not regulated by Indiana state law. See 329 Ind. Admin. Code § 11-3-1(7) (exempting uncontaminated and untreated natural growth solid waste from state solid waste regulations). All of IDEM's allegations in its first suit against VIM were brought under Indiana state law. IDEM brought no claims against VIM under RCRA. IDEM's first lawsuit and the plaintiffs' RCRA citizen suit simply cannot overlap with respect to A grade waste. Third, it is clear beyond reasonable dispute that IDEM's first C grade waste lawsuit did not also encompass VIM's violations of Indiana law with regard to its treatment and handling of B grade waste. Just over a year after it filed its first lawsuit, IDEM filed its second lawsuit (discussed above) in which it sought an injunction to stop VIM from violating Indiana law in its dumping and processing of B grade waste. See 2009 IDEM Complaint ¶ 6(a)-(e). If IDEM's allegations in its first lawsuit regarding VIM's dumping and processing of C grade waste were indeed broad enough to cover all the solid waste at the site, as VIM now contends, then IDEM's second lawsuit would have been unnecessary. IDEM itself interprets VIM's treatment and handling of C grade waste and B grade waste as distinct violations of Indiana's solid waste regulations. We too conclude that plaintiffs' RCRA allegations about B grade waste and C grade waste do not overlap. For all three of these reasons, we conclude that 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(1)(B) does not bar the plaintiffs from bringing this citizen suit seeking to enforce RCRA against VIM with respect to solid wastes other than the C grade wastes. [5] Perhaps a more detailed factual record could reveal that, contrary to our reading of the procedural history of the various lawsuits against VIM, the different grades of waste are in fact properly regulated as undifferentiated solid waste. Perhaps, for instance, IDEM's decisions to file the first lawsuit in 2008 addressing the C grade waste and the second lawsuit in 2009 addressing the B grade waste had nothing to do with the grades of waste at all but were part of its overall enforcement strategy. These and other relevant issues may be properly addressed on remand with more information than is available from the limited record on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Based on the existing record, however, including VIM's success in preventing the plaintiffs from raising their claims as intervenors in the first IDEM suit, section 6972(b)(1)(B) does not bar the plaintiffs' RCRA violation claim in this citizen suit.