Lourdes Archbold-Garrett v. New Orleans Cit
Opinion
Without prior notice, the City of New Orleans demolished a building along the IH-10 service road that plaintiffs had recently purchased at a tax sale. Yet two days before the demolition, the City actually cancelled the Code Enforcement lien on the property, which it obtained after sending notices only to the owner from 18 years earlier. When the Garretts objected to the demolition, the City added insult to injury by sending them a bill for the costs. Unsurprisingly, they filed suit. The question before this court is whether their lawsuit survives the City's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). We hold it does. We VACATE the district court's judgment and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
BACKGROUND
The Garretts' Section 1983 complaint alleged violations of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.
The property at issue is a parcel of land and a townhome that used to stand off of I-10 in New Orleans. The City had owned the property since 1998 after its previous owner, Charles Jett, neglected to pay his taxes. The City's ownership was recorded with the City Conveyance Office shortly thereafter. Notwithstanding its ownership, the City instituted housing Code Enforcement proceedings against Jett in 2012.
The Appellants purchased the property from the City on October 2, 2015, and recorded the conveyance on October 14. They aver that the building on the property was structurally sound, and the purchase documents contain no warnings of defects (though the document makes no positive statement about the buildings and improvements either).
Heedless of the sale to Appellants, or of its original tax sale purchase, the City continued to pursue Jett for alleged code enforcement deficiencies. An administrative judgment was entered against Jett on October 30, ordering him to pay over $12,000 in fines and warning that the building could be demolished in the future. A judgment lien was recorded on the property on December 7, 2015. The Appellants were not named in the judgment or lien, and they received no notice from the City about the judgment or lien. All proceedings were against Jett, the pre-1998 owner.
On January 15, 2016, the Appellants' realtor noticed a sign advising upcoming demolition of the property. When the realtor informed them of the sign, they contacted the City. After some back-and-forth with the Code Enforcement department, Appellants persuaded the City to cancel the lien against the property. The e-mail exchanges indicated that Appellants intended to develop the property and resolve *321 all code enforcement issues. The lien was cancelled on January 25, 2016.
Two days later, despite having cancelled the enforcement lien, the City demolished the townhouse on the Appellants' property. The Appellants had no warning.
Appellants' counsel sent the City a letter on April 14 requesting compensation for the wrongful demolition. The City responded on April 19 with a bill exceeding $11,000 for the demolition costs. The bill informed the Appellants of their "right to appeal the accuracy and reasonableness of these costs by appearing at a hearing." Plaintiffs did not appeal.
The Appellants filed this civil rights case in federal court on October 28, 2016, alleging denial of due process and just compensation under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The City moved to dismiss Appellants' complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because their claims were unripe. The district court agreed that the Appellants' takings claim was jurisdictionally unripe because they failed to seek compensation in state court. The district court reasoned that the Appellants' failure to seek compensation in state court also meant that their intertwined procedural due process and Fourth Amendment claims were unripe. Following dismissal of their suit, the Appellants timely appealed.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
This court reviews motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1)
de novo
.
See
Moran v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
,
DISCUSSION
Ripeness doctrine enforces the Constitution's limit of federal court jurisdiction to "cases or controversies" by preventing premature litigation. "[A] claim is not ripe for adjudication if it rests upon contingent future events that may not occur as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all."
Texas v. United States
,
The Appellants challenge each of these holdings. We address their due process claim first, as it colors the analysis for their remaining claims.
I. Procedural Due Process
Appellants' due process claim is premised on the City's failure to give them notice and an opportunity to defend against the fines and scheduled demolition. Contrary to the district court's view, they contend, this due process claim is not subsidiary
*322
to and thus unripe along with the takings claim. They argue that by its terms, their due process claim challenges injuries different from their takings claim because it concerns "the means by which the deprivation was effected, not the deprivation itself." A procedural due process violation is actionable and compensable without regard to any other injury.
See
Carey v. Piphus
,
The City counters that the district court correctly applied
Williamson County
to prevent premature litigation of Appellants' claims. The City relies on
John Corp. v. City of Houston
,
Appellants respond that
Rosedale
and
John Corp.
are distinguishable because the court found in each of those cases that "just compensation" for a taking would give the plaintiffs full relief. Therefore, they argue their distinct due process claim should be judged under the traditional standard that the injury is complete at the time process is denied.
See
Bowlby v. City of Aberdeen
,
This court's opinion in Rosedale guides our analysis. There, this court explained:
John Corp ., like the instant case, was brought by a plaintiff alleging that it *323 was not provided sufficient process before the state demolished its property. We held that "it will only be when a court may assess the takings claim that it will also be able to examine whether [the owner of the demolished property was] afforded less procedure than is constitutionally required." Until then, "additional factual development is necessary." The reason is that, where the injury that resulted from an alleged procedural due process violation is merely a taking without just compensation, we cannot know whether the plaintiff suffered any injury until the takings claim has been adjudicated. And because Williamson County requires that the takings claim be adjudicated "through the procedures the State has provided for doing so," we cannot decide the takings claims ourselves.
We must therefore allow state takings procedures to run their course before we can adjudicate the procedural due process claim. Indeed, the state adjudication of the takings claim is likely to moot this case, allowing us to avoid the constitutional question whether notice is required before a taking under the Due Process Clause. Conversely, a decision by this court that the church was entitled to the value of its demolished property would permit an end-run around Williamson County .
Rosedale
,
The relevant inquiry then is whether the Appellants' state law inverse condemnation suit would afford a remedy for these additional injuries. Article 1, Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution states: "Property shall not be taken or damaged by the state or its political subdivisions except for public purposes and with just compensation paid to the owner ...." The Louisiana Constitution explains that "[i]n every expropriation or action to take property pursuant to the provisions of this Section ... the owner shall be compensated to the full extent of his loss." La. Const. art. 1, § 4 (B)(5). "[T]he full extent of the loss shall include, but not be limited to, the appraised value of the property and all costs of relocation, inconvenience, and any other damages actually incurred by the owner because of the expropriation."
In
Chambers Investment Co.,
the Louisiana Supreme Court laid out a three-pronged analysis for "determining whether a claimant is entitled to eminent domain compensation" for "the taking and damaging of legal property rights, as opposed to the concrete objects of rights ...."
Although these cases indicate that Louisiana public entities' liability for takings claims is not limited to the value of the physical property, they do not rebut the Appellants' contention that their damages cannot be fully compensated in state court. Whether the bill for demolition costs and a lien therefor is a "taking or damage in the constitutional sense" is not answered by
Chambers.
Further, the City has pointed to no case, and this court has found none, suggesting that Appellants' inverse condemnation action could result in equitable relief from the post-demolition bill of costs and lien the City imposed on the Appellants. Indeed, the Louisiana Supreme Court has recently reconfirmed that "[t]here is no specific formula set forth by the Legislature to aid courts in determining the 'full extent of the loss' " and noted that La. Rev. Stat. Section 19:9"provides limited guidance as to how to determine the 'full extent of the loss.' "
St. Bernard Port, Harbor & Terminal Dist. v. Violet Dock Port, Inc.
,
Given the uncertainty of state law, this court is not convinced that an inverse condemnation action would provide the same scope of damages available to the Appellants under Carey v. Piphus to remedy their standalone procedural due process injury, nor could it result in a damage judgment for or equitable relief from the City's lien for demolition costs. Accordingly, the Appellants' procedural due process claim is ripe and, unlike the situations in John Corp. and Rosedale, does not overlap with their takings claim.
II. Takings
Appellants also argue that the district court erred in dismissing their takings claim as unripe. First, the Supreme Court and this court have held that
Williamson County
is a prudential doctrine, rather than a strict jurisdictional bar.
See
Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep't of Envtl. Prot.
,
Because this court has determined that the Appellants' due process claim is ripe, we agree it would be prudent to allow their takings claim to proceed in federal court. This court has not previously decided a case in which prudential factors justified disregarding
Williamson County
's state-litigation requirement, but a line of Fourth Circuit cases doing so is persuasive.
See
Town of Nags Head v. Toloczko
,
III. Unreasonable Seizure
Finally, the Appellants contend that the district court applied an improper framework to determine that their Fourth Amendment seizure claim is unripe. The Appellants contend that "[w]hen there is a completed seizure and allegation of damages, as here, ripeness is not an issue because no further events need to occur ...." Consequently, the district court's reliance on the four-part ripeness test from
Severance v. Patterson
,
We agree. The Appellants' Fourth Amendment claim is plainly ripe.
Abbott Laboratories
involved a pre-enforcement challenge to FDA regulations, while in
Severance
, the plaintiff requested declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent enforcement of a beachfront easement.
See
Abbott Labs.
,
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, we VACATE the district court's judgment dismissing the Garretts' complaint and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
We also note the Appellants' allegation that the state-court action would be futile because the City has a history of not paying state-court judgments. This does not appear on the face of their complaint. However, when asked about this contention at oral argument, the City acknowledged that it is not required to immediately pay judgments, and instead has the discretion to pass ordinances to allocate funds to pay "as they see fit."
The City also argues that the ordinance permitting it to demolish a property in imminent danger of collapse requires no notice. This could set up a defense to the Garretts' claim, but the propriety of the demolition under local law is not at issue in this motion to dismiss on the pleadings. On a motion to dismiss, "[a]ny well-pled factual allegations must be viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs ...."
Beavers v. Metro. Life Ins. Co.
,
Section 19:9 directs a court to "include in its consideration [of the full extent of the loss] the difference between the rate of interest of any existing mortgage on an owner-occupied residence and the prevailing rate of interest required to obtain a mortgage on another owner-occupied residence of equal value."
We note that the availability of a takings claim does not necessarily subsume a plaintiff's ability to pursue a seizure claim as well.
See
Soldal v. Cook Cty.
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Lourdes T. ARCHBOLD-GARRETT, Wife Of/ And; David L. Garrett, Plaintiffs-Appellants v. NEW ORLEANS CITY; Metro Durr Group, Defendants-Appellees
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published