Robichaux Construction, Inc. v. Solid Waste Disposal, Inc.
Robichaux Construction, Inc. v. Solid Waste Disposal, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER AND REASONS
In this RICO case, the plaintiff, Robi-chaux Construction, Co., charges that it was denied the award of a trash collection and disposal contract by the Lafourche Parish Council, although it submitted the lowest bid. Plaintiff urges that the defendants in this case conspired to insure, through a pattern of racketeering activity, that a competitor, the defendant Solid Waste Disposal, received preferential treatment in getting the contract.
Defendants have moved this Court to exercise its power to abstain.
Plaintiff filed this RICO suit on January 19, 1988; prior to that date, the following events occurred:
On June 11, 1986, the Lafourche Parish Council directed Horace Thibodaux to prepare bid specifications and contract documents for the transfer of solid waste generated within Lafourche Parish to an approved disposal site.
Enerland Recovery Services (now a part of Robichaux through merger) and Triad Resources and Systems Holdings, Inc. were the only two bidders.
A dispute arose, and Triad sought to disqualify the Enerland bid because Ener-land did not bid on all proposals and because Enerland’s proposed rates improperly called for escalation based upon cost increases to Enerland rather than recognized escalation clauses such as the consumer price index.
Because of the controversy, Bobby Tar-do, President of the Council, turned to defendant Barbera for legal advice concerning the dispute between Enerland and Triad. The Council thereafter rejected both bids at a December 1, 1986 meeting and caused new bid specifications and contract documents for the transfer of solid waste to be issued.
The lowest bid on the new proposal was made by Triad, followed in descending order by Solid Waste Disposal, Browning-Ferris Industries and Enerland. Triad’s bid was disqualified at a Council meeting on February 11, 1987. The bid of Solid Waste Disposal was then accepted.
Prompted by these events, two suits, which implicate many of the facts in this RICO suit, were filed in the 17th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Lafourche. The two state court suits were filed months before the federal suit. The first suit, Triad Resources and Systems Holdings, Inc. v. Parish of Lafourche, et al, # 58876, was filed on February 27, 1987.
The second suit, on June 2, 1987, was by Enerland, which is now Robichaux, and is styled Enerland Recovery Services, Inc., v. Parish of Lafourche, et al, # 59534.
The question before this Court, then, is whether the Court should exercise its power to abstain from hearing this RICO suit because of the two related suits pending in state court. The Court holds that abstention under these circumstances is proper and that this case will be stayed until the
Failure to abstain in this case would result in duplicative litigation. As the Supreme Court stated in Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976),
Generally, as between state and federal courts, the rule is that ‘the pendency of an action in the state court is no bar to proceedings concerning the same matter in the Federal court having jurisdiction’, [citations omitted] As between federal district courts, however, although no precise rule has evolved, the general principal is to avoid duplicative litigation. 424 U.S. at 816, 96 S.Ct. at 1245.
Here, the central issue, common to both state cases and of significance to this federal RICO case, is the propriety of the Council’s decision to award the contract to Solid Waste Disposal rather than to Robi-chaux or to Triad under the Louisiana Public Bid Laws.
[A] final decision in the state court may be dispositive of the federal claims. Allowing both suits to proceed would ‘occupy the energies of two courts at the same time’ with identical tasks, [citations omitted] Faced with this prospect of duplicating the efforts of a state court, it is appropriate for a federal court to exercise its power to abstain. Id. at 1244-45.
This Court cannot ignore the counsel of Colorado River to avoid piecemeal litigation. Id. at 1247. It is instructive, then, to note that many of the same witnesses, lawyers, and other participants will be involved in each dispute forum; it is clear that a state court will have to decide issues which are intertwined with some of the same influential issues here: the bid process, the bid specifications, bid sufficiency, the propriety of legal advice given to decision makers. Efforts to speak to these issues
Finally, Colorado River attaches some significance to “the order in which jurisdiction was obtained by the concurrent forums.” Id. However, “this priority should not be measured exclusively by which complaint was filed first, but rather in terms of how much progress has been made in the two actions.” Moses H. Cone Memorial Hosp. v. Mercury Const., 460 U.S. 1, 21, 103 S.Ct. 927, 939, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983). Both state suits were filed well before the RICO suit.
In sum, considering “wise judicial administration, giving regard to conservation of judicial resources and comprehensive disposition of litigation,” this Court abstains from hearing plaintiffs RICO suit at this time. See Colorado River, supra, 424 U.S. at 816, 96 S.Ct. at 1245. This case shall be stayed pending final resolution of the two related state court suits.
Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, defendants’ Motion to Stay is GRANTED.
. The defendants in this case are: (1) Solid Waste Disposal, Inc.; (2) Harold Calíais and (3) Robert Faulk, managers of Solid Waste; (4) Cyrus "Bobby” Tardo, President of the La-fourche Parish Council; (5) Steven Wilson, member of the Council; (6) Horace Thibodaux, Solid Waste consultant for Lafourche and Terre-bonne Parishes; (7) T. Baker Smith & Son., Inc., employer of Mr. Thibodaux; (8) Jerome Barb-era, Assistant District Attorney for Lafourche Parish and legal advisor to the Council; (9) Gus Baldwin, President of Valentine Sugars; and (10) Valentine Sugars, Inc.
. The facts recited are not disputed by plaintiff.
. The defendants in this case include the Council, its members (including Bobby Tardo and Steven Wilson) and Solid Waste Disposal. It deals with the second round of the bid process.
. According to Triad’s complaint, a purpose of this meeting was to consider the disqualification of Triad’s bid.
. Other defendants are the members of the Council, T. Baker Smith and Sons, Inc., Horace Thibodaux, and Solid Waste Disposal.
. This suit also charges that the Council acted “in concert” with the other defendants in that suit.
. La.R.S. 38:2212 A.(l)(a), provides:
All public work exceeding the contract limit as defined herein, including labor, materials, and all purchases of materials or supplies exceeding the sum of five thousand dollars to be paid out of public funds, to be done by a public entity shall be advertised and let by contract to the lowest responsible bidder who had bid according to the contract, plans, and specifications as advertised, and no such public work shall be done and no such purchase shall be made except as provided in this Part.
. In this regard, the Court notes that La.R.S. 13:5106 states:
A. No suit against the state or a state agency or political subdivision shall be instituted in any court other than a Louisiana state court.
Plaintiff is correct that this provision, by its strict terms, does not apply to this RICO case since none of the defendants here is the State or a State agency. However, the provision infers a strong suggestion by the Louisiana legislature that suits involving acts of public officials concerning matters within the scope of their duties should be brought in state forums. At issue is the propriety of the actions of those intimately connected with the processes and decisions of the Lafourche Parish Council in connection with the awarding of a garbage contract. But this point is not dispositive. It merely calls to mind the restraining notion of the extent to which federal courts ought to inject themselves into state issues that are swirling about in parallel state court proceedings.
.This Court regards as superficial plaintiffs argument that the legal sufficiency of the plaintiffs bid before the Council — an issue in the state court cases — is not related to the issue in this case: whether the defendants unlawfully conspired to deny plaintiff the contract. Both issues go directly to whether plaintiff should have received the contract. See Highlands Ins. Co. v. A.E. Investments, 637 F.Supp. 213, 214 (E.D.La. 1986) (this Court has abstained from hearing a federal declaratory judgment action where the "coverage issue [in the federal proceeding] was inextricably interwined with the liability questions currently at issue in the state proceedings.”) Clearly, the RICO issues go beyond the matter of the sufficiency of some bid. But, nevertheless, bid sufficiency is a prophylactic and hotly contested defense issue in this case. It must be addressed here, as it will most certainly be addressed at the state level.
. The Ernerland suit was filed on June 2, 1987, and the Triad suit was filed on February 27, 1987. This suit was filed on January 19, 1988.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ROBICHAUX CONSTRUCTION, INC. v. SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL, INC.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published