Court Opinion

ID: 9487520
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:19:15.96746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:19.997772
License: Public Domain

*448WALD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
It is indeed a difficult question whether the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations is jurisdictional and therefore not waivable. The logic of our past cases does suggest that such a statute of limitations acts as a “condition oh the waiver of sovereign immunity,” United States v. Mottaz, 476 U.S. 834, 841, 106 S.Ct. 2224, 2229, 90 L.Ed.2d 841 (1986), setting an outer time limit on the subject matter jurisdiction of federal courts for claims against the government, which cannot be waived, Walters v. Secretary of Defense, 725 F.2d 107, 112 n. 12 (D.C.Cir.1983). Nevertheless, since the majority does not reach this novel question, and since the implications of deciding it in the government’s favor are weighty and deserving of full study and dialogue, I too am content to leave its resolution to another day.
Assuming arguendo that the time bar is waivable, I disagree with the majority, however, in its principal conclusion that the government did not waive it here. The government’s failure to cite in its answer any specific statute of limitations might be forgiven under the liberal notice pleading requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.1 But its subsequent failure to raise the limitations defense in any way, shape or form up through the grant of summary judgment and the appeal of that judgment is not so easily dismissed. In sum, its overall strategy of totally ignoring any further reference to the statute of limitations until after remand from a court of appeals rejection of its primary laches defense five years later, did amount to a waiver of the limitations bar. That strategy, moreover, indicates too cavalier an approach toward the judicial process and the resources of the court to pass muster.
The tortured procedural history of this case bears out my view. The Society first filed suit in federal district court in 1978, challenging the Park Service’s failure to prepare an environmental impact statement for a proposed interchange on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, to be built ás part of a private development pursuant to its 1970 land exchange agreement with a private party. The government successfully argued that the case was not ripe for adjudication, because at that point the interchange construction was merely “a proposal by a private party” which the government had not yet accepted or rejected. Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Andrus, 458 F.Supp. 961, 963 (D.D.C.1978). After the Park Service finally issued a deed of easement in 1984 implementing the land exchange agreement, and various government agencies had approved an interchange design, the private developer announced in 1986 that it would proceed with the development. The Society promptly brought suit in district court, reasonably believing on the basis of the district court’s previous decision that the proper time to challenge the government’s action had arrived. The government, however, responded somewhat surprisingly that it was now too late to bring such a suit, asserting an affirmative defense of laches and — as if by way of afterthought — throwing in a boilerplate reference to “the applicable statute of limitations” (whichever one that might be) in its answer. The government pressed the theory of laches, but remained utterly mute on the subject of the statute of limitations for the next five years. In the meantime, the government moved for dismissal or in the alternative for summary judgment on its principal defense of laches — an equitable defense normally and logically argued in tandem with its legal cousin, the statute of limitations, when the latter is available. After the government prevailed on its laches defense in the trial court, Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Hodel, 710 F.Supp. 368 (D.D.C.1989), the Society appealed. We reversed and sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings on the merits. Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Lujan, 920 F.2d 32 (D.C.Cir.1990). Only then, having lost an appeal of its laches defense and faced with the prospect .of having to defend on the merits, did the government assert its statute of limitations defense in substance. I do not believe that mere boilerplate recitation of the *449words “applicable statute of limitations” in a responsive pleading serves to license the government or any other litigant to preserve the defense indefinitely in some “legal ‘limbo’ ” as an “‘unargued’ affirmative defense[],” Pantry Inc. v. Stop-N-Go Foods, Inc., 796 F.Supp. 1164, 1168 (D.D.C.1992), available to be dredged up at any point in the proceedings after other defenses fail. Under the circumstances recounted here, I would rule that the government has abandoned and waived its statute of limitations defense. Cf. United Mine Workers 1974 Pension Fund v. Pittston Co., 984 F.2d 469, 478 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 3040, 125 L.Ed.2d 726 (1993) (defendant’s “failure to brief the limitations defense” in opposition to motion for summary judgment constitutes abandonment of defense);2 Burton v. Northern Dutchess Hospital, 106 F.R.D. 477 (S.D.N.Y.1985) (failure to argue potentially dispositive issue of deficient service of process over three and one-half years waives defense, even though defense was asserted in answer).
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are designed to promote the twin goals of judicial economy and fairness to litigants, in part by requiring early consolidation of claims and defenses to eliminate dilatory motion practice and to promote speedy resolution of cases. Rule 8(c) requires presentation of all affirmative defenses in a single responsive pleading, and Rule 12(g) requires consolidation of all pre-pleading defenses in a single dispositive motion. Defenses not so consolidated are generally waived. Rule 12(h)(2), however, allows exceptions to the Rule 12(g) requirement for certain kinds of motions, including motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, which “may be made in any pleading ... or by motion for judgment on the pleadings, or at the trial on the merits.” Although nothing in the Federal Rules specifically forbids the filing of later dispositive motions falling within the Rule 12(h)(2) exceptions, “the spirit of Rule 12(g) is violated when a [Rule 12 dispos-itive] motion ... is filed after a summary judgment motion was made.” 5A Charles A. WRIght & Arthur R. Miller, Federal PRACTICE and ProCEdure § 1387 (1990). Allowing the government to resurrect its statute of limitations defense at so late a stage— after an unsuccessful laches defense has been taken to the court of appeals and rejected— undercuts the thrust and purpose of the Federal Rules by encouraging piecemeal litigation punctuated by seriatim appeals, burdening parties and the courts with unnecessarily protracted litigation, and depriving them of fair notice and timely resolution of dispositive issues. There is no reason to countenance or encourage that kind of “Gotcha!” tactic by the government.
The Pare Servioe’s Statutory Obligations
I also disagree with the majority’s conclusion that, because the Park Service had entered a “legally binding” agreement to build a highway interchange, it was thereby relieved of all further statutory duties to review the environmental, historic, scenic, and recreational consequences of the construction project, except as to narrow design questions. In my view, the agency remained under a statutory obligation to evaluate the entire construction project in light of statutorily-mandated considerations, and to weigh all its options, including the possibility of *450defaulting on, or buying out, its construction obligations under the land exchange agreement. Of course, a default or buyout may ultimately prove impractical or unsound, and we would not lightly disturb such an agency determination; but in this case, the agency did not even make the inquiry, much less give a reasoned explanation for its decision to proceed with the construction project. The majority’s approach would allow an agency to limit the scope of its statutory obligations by “contracting out” of them, so that once the agency enters a binding agreement with a private party and the agreement itself, for whatever reason, evades judicial review, the agency’s obligations under the agreement will excuse or trump the agency’s ordinary statutory obligations. I would conclude that, even though the land exchange agreement was legally binding, the Park Service remained under an obligation to consider, under statutorily-specified procedures, the recreational and scenic impact of the entire interchange construction project under the National Park Service Organic Act; its conformity with the comprehensive plan under the National Capital Planning Act; its impact on the Historic District of the City of Alexandria and on the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway under the National Historic Preservation Act; and its impact on the Potomac floodplain under Executive Order No. 11,988 and the Floodplain Management Guidelines, and that by limiting the scope of its review to narrow design questions, it has breached these statutory duties.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.

. Cf. Wyshak v. City Nat. Bank, 607 F.2d 824 (9th Cir.1979) (bare reference to “applicable statute of limitations” in answer is sufficient when supported by memorandum outlining argument and citing specific statute).

. The majority characterizes Pittston as a case in which the "defendant ... apparently waived its defenses from the beginning, having never asserted them in any pleading or motion in the district court,” supra at 445. But the majority’s attempt to distinguish Pittston is too facile. Whether or not the defendant in Pittston ever properly raised the statute of limitations, see Majority opinion at 445 n. 2, we held more generally in Pittston that the defendant had abandoned all its affirmative defenses, including those it apparently had initially asserted in its pleadings, stating that "failure to raise an affirmative defense in opposition to a motion for summary judgment constitutes an abandonment of the defense” on the grounds that “[s]ince disposition on summary judgment would resolve the case as a matter of law, [defendant] naturally should have briefed dispositive legal defenses like the running of the limitations period.” 984 F.2d at 478 (emphasis added). See also UMWA 1974 Pension Trust v. Pittston Co., 793 F.Supp. 339, 344 (D.D.C.1992) (defendant "waived [its] ... affirmative defenses by not asserting them in its own motion for summary judgment and, more importantly, by not asserting them in its opposition to [plaintiff’s] motion for summary judgment”).