Date: 08-27-2007

Case Style: Bruce Peters v. Village of Clifton, et al.

Case Number: 06-3735

Judge: Ripple

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on appeal from the Centeral District of Illinois (Peoria County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Unknown

Defendant's Attorney: Unknown

Description:

Bruce Peters brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Village of Clifton ("Village"), Alexander, Cox & McTaggert, Inc. ("ACM") and Joseph McTaggert. He alleged that the defendants had trespassed on his property in order to expand the Village's sewage discharge system and, in so doing, had committed an unconstitutional taking of his property in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. On the Village's Rule 12(b)(1) motion, the district court dismissed the action. Mr. Peters appealed. We agree that the district court properly dismissed the action, and, accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

Background

A. Facts

Mr. Peters owns a parcel of agricultural land just outside the eastern edge of the village limits of Clifton, Illinois. ACM owns agricultural property within the village limits that directly abuts Mr. Peters' land. Running eastward along Mr. Peters' property is a waterway that empties into a drainage ditch. At some unknown time in the past, prior to Mr. Peters' ownership of the property, farm drainage tile had been buried on Mr. Peters' land. The tile was parallel to and beneath the waterway. The Village had an existing sewage line in the vicinity for some time. The line ran under ACM's property.

Mr. Peters claims that, in 2005, the private defendants, at the instruction of the Village, trespassed onto his land, dug up the old, non-functioning sewer tile and installed new, larger tile. This newly-installed tile, Mr. Peters contends, was then connected to the Village's existing sewage tile "at or about the property line" between his land and that owned by ACM. R.1 at 4. The Village thus created, he maintains, an "unregulated[,] unlicensed sanitary sewer system discharging sewage through the farm tile within [Mr. Peters'] property." Id. at 3. Mr. Peters believes that the Village made these improvements in an attempt to make the adjacent land within the Village boundaries suitable for development.

Mr. Peters claims that, to install the new tile, ACM, with the consent of the Village, came onto his property and used "various poisons on the nature preserve bordering the above ground drainage ditch, underneath which is the [Village's] illegal sanitary sewage line." He claims that this action destroyed trees and destabilized the land. Id. at 4. Mr. Peters claims that acres of his farmland were rendered unsuitable for agricultural uses because of soil compaction and drainage of "untreated sewage and waste materials." Id. at 5.

B. District Court Proceedings

Mr. Peters filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He asserted that the defendants had committed an unauthorized taking of his property in violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution as made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. City of Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 233, 236-37 (1897). Mr. Peters requested compensatory damages for the taking and a permanent injunction forbidding the Village from discharging any materials through the drainage tiles on his property.1

The Village moved to dismiss the action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, claiming that the action was not ripe. Specifically, the Village contended that, before Mr. Peters could assert a takings claim in federal court, he was required first to seek compensation through appropriate state channels. This course was mandated, in the Village's view, by the decision of the Supreme Court in Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson County, 473 U.S. 172 (1985). The district court agreed with the Village that, under Williamson County, Mr. Peters was obligated to show either that he had exhausted state remedies or that those remedies were unavailable to him. The district court assumed for purposes of its analysis that the Village had no eminent domain powers under Illinois law. The court concluded, however, that, if the only remedy the state provided for a taking was dependent upon a particular jurisdiction's home rule status, the lack of an available remedy in a case such as this one would violate the Takings Clause of the Illinois Constitution. The district court held that, absent explicit authority from the Illinois courts that no state remedy was available for takings effected by non-home rule jurisdictions, Mr. Peters was required to seek compensation from the state, whether titled an inverse condemnation proceeding or a suit in tort.2 Because Mr. Peters had not availed himself of state procedures for obtaining compensation, the court concluded that his claim for a violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment was not ripe. Accordingly, the district court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.3

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The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that no "private property [shall] be taken for public use, without just compensation." U.S. Const. amend. V. "While it confirms the State's authority to confiscate private property, the text of the Fifth Amendment imposes two conditions on the exercise of such authority: the taking must be for a ‘public use' and ‘just compensation' must be paid to the owner." Brown v. Legal Found. of Washington, 538 U.S. 216, 231-32 (2003) (emphasis added).

"The Fifth Amendment does not proscribe the taking of property; it proscribes taking without just compensation." Williamson County, 473 U.S. at 194. This principle makes clear that, ordinarily, compensation, not an injunction, is the appropriate remedy for a taking that satisfies the public use requirement. Patel v. City of Chicago, 383 F.3d 569, 574 (7th Cir. 2004). "[T]he federal courts' role is not to enjoin localities from exercising their eminent domain powers, but to ensure that property owners are justly compensated when localities exercise that power." Id. at 574.5

Because "[n]o constitutional violation occurs until just compensation has been denied," Williamson County, 473 U.S. at 195 n.13, the Supreme Court has crafted a special ripeness doctrine that applies to claims arising under the Takings Clause. In Williamson County, the Supreme Court considered a claim for a temporary regulatory taking, occasioned by zoning regulations covering a particular plot of land. The Court affirmed the dismissal of the action by the landowner, holding it premature on two separate bases. First, the Court ruled that the landowner had failed to obtain a final decision from the state agency responsible for the taking. Williamson County, 473 U.S. at 190-94 (explaining the final decision requirement). Second, the Court reiterated the principle that the Constitution does not prevent "taking[s]," but rather prohibits "taking[s] without just compensation." Id. at 194. A state need not provide compensation prior to, or contemporaneous with, the alleged taking, so long as there is a "reasonable, certain and adequate provision" at the time of the taking for an injured property owner to obtain just compensation from the state after the taking has been accomplished. Id. at 194 (quoting Regional Rail Reorganization Act Cases, 419 U.S. at 124-25); see also id. at 196. Therefore, a plaintiff property owner cannot claim a violation of the Just Compensation Clause until he has sought and been denied compensation under available state court procedures. Id. at 194 n.13, 195.

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Outcome: We affirm the judgment of the district court. AFFIRMED

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: None