Salyer Land Co. v. Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage Dist.
| Decision Date | 26 June 1972 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. F-414. |
| Citation | 342 F. Supp. 144 |
| Parties | SALYER LAND COMPANY, a California corporation, et al., Plaintiffs, v. TULARE LAKE BASIN WATER STORAGE DISTRICT, a public district, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
C. Ray Robinson, Merced, Cal., Thomas Keister Greer, Rocky Mount, Va., for plaintiffs.
Robert M. Newell, Newell & Chester, Ernest M. Clark, Jr., Donnelly, Clark, Chase & Haakh, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant.
Before BROWNING, Circuit Judge, and CROCKER and SCHNACKE, District Judges.
Probable Jurisdiction Noted June 26, 1972. See 92 S.Ct. 2496.
This court has jurisdiction under section 1343 of Title 28 and section 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code, and a three-judge court has been convened pursuant to section 2284 of Title 28 of the United States Code.
The case was submitted on factual statements of the parties and briefs, without testimony or oral argument. Plaintiffs were represented by C. Ray Robinson, Esq., and Thomas Keister Greer, Esq.; defendant was represented by Robert M. Newell, Esq., and Ernest M. Clark, Jr., Esq.
Plaintiffs are landowners or resident registered voters within the area covered by defendant, Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, which was organized pursuant to California law.
In this action, plaintiffs contend that California Water Code §§ 41000 and 410011 are unconstitutional in that they deny plaintiffs the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States in that they permit only landowners to vote and give them one vote for each $100 of assessed valuation. Thus non-landowners cannot vote, and the small landowners get fewer votes than the large landowners.
Plaintiffs seek an order of this court enjoining defendant from giving effect to these sections and requiring defendant to submit a plan whereby all residents be permitted only one vote regardless of land-ownership.
At the outset, defendant asks this court to abstain from rendering a decision, but abstention is not proper in this case as the California Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of these two sections.
Defendant is a water storage district organized in 1926 under California law which limits its activities to the development and improvement of the water supply within the district, thus benefitting the land which alone bears the cost.
It performs no governmental functions of general concern to the populace and provides no service to the general public such as found by the court in Burrey v. Embarcadero Municipal Improvement District recently decided by the Supreme Court of California.
The State of California has a compelling interest in the development of its water resources, and limiting the vote to landowners is necessary to further this state interest because it is doubtful if the District would have been formed unless the persons paying the expenses could control them.
While it is true that the activities of the District affect the economy of the area which is of interest to residents that are not landowners, this is an indirect interest and not a direct, primary and substantial interest that would entitle them to vote. Thus limiting the vote to landowners in this particular water district does not violate plaintiffs' constitutional rights, and the "one man, one vote" cases cited by plaintiffs are not controlling in this special purpose district.
Section 41001 providing one vote for each $100 of assessed valuation is not unconstitutional as the benefits and burdens to each landowner in the District are in proportion to the assessed value of the land, so permitting voting in the same proportion fairly distributes the voting influence.
The remaining issue in this case is the malapportionment of the divisions that is alleged in paragraph XII of the complaint. Plaintiffs pray that the District be required to submit a plan for holding all elections at large.
Defendant argues that sections 43730 and 41550 of the California Water Code provide adequate State remedies, that the remedy is not within the Civil Rights Act, and that if it is, this court should abstain due to the adequate State remedies.
California Water Code §§ 43730 and 41550 do not provide an adequate State remedy for malapportionment. Section 43730 pertains to improper board action and 41550 provides a means of forcing the board to hold an election. Section 41152 provided the redivisioning remedy which plaintiffs seek, but was repealed in September 1969. From that date to the present, there has been no adequate State remedy.
Section 39777 will not grant relief as it merely requires initial segregation in divisions "possessing the same general character of water rights or interests in the water of a common source." Nor does section 41153 help, as it merely contemplates that the board may make a redivision order; however, there is no mandatory requirement present.
Where there is no State remedy and a Civil Rights violation occurs, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 has been interpreted "to provide a remedy . . . ." McNeese v. Board of Education, 373 U.S. 668, 672, 83 S.Ct. 1433, 10 L.Ed.2d 622 (1963).
Here we have divisions created by a state engineer (approved) acting under state law, and these divisions have been maintained by the Board of Directors also purporting to act under state law. This action is within 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See, Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961).
The present divisions have not been redivisioned for 40 years. Total assessed valuation of the land in Division 4 is nearly three times greater than the total assessed valuation of Division 10 (Division 4—$1,954,547; Division 10—$688,425). The result is that $100 of assessed valuation in Division 10 has almost three times the voting power of $100 of assessed valuation in Division 4. In addition, Division 4 has 110 separate landowners, whereas Division 10 has only 4. Each division is entitled to one director on the District's Board of Directors. Consequently, the 110 landowners in Division 4 have only one-third the representation on the Board when compared to Division 10.
Such malapportionment presents a classic violation of equal protection and therefore defendant is ordered to submit a plan to correct this malapportionment within six months of the date this decision becomes final.
If defendant is unable to redivision the district into divisions which are reasonably equal in assessed valuation and also possess the same general character of water rights or interest in the water of a common source as required by section 39777 of the California Water Code, the plan may provide for elections at large.
Defendant asks this court to abstain from rendering a decision with respect to California Water Code §§ 410001 and 41001.2 "But the abstention rule only applies where `the issue of state law is uncertain'" Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433, 438, 91 S.Ct. 507, 511, 27 L.Ed.2d 515 (1971), and here the meaning of the challenged state statutes is clear.
Turning to the merits, it is clear at the outset that the Equal Protection Clause applies not only to the challenged statutes but also to their implementation by the defendant district. "The Equal Protection Clause reaches the exercise of state power however manifested, whether exercised directly or through subdivisions of the State." Avery v. Midland County, 390 U.S. 474, 479, 88 S.Ct. 1114, 1117, 20 L.Ed.2d 45 (1968). Defendant and similar entities In re Madera Irrigation District, 92 Cal. 296, 317, 28 P. 272, 276 (1891). See Girth v. Thompson, 11 Cal.App.3d 325, 328, 89 Cal.Rptr. 823 (1970).3
To evaluate the constitutionality of the challenged voting rules, the purpose and effect of the rules must be examined in the context of the district's activity. "In determining whether or not a state law violates the Equal Protection Clause, we must consider the facts and circumstances behind the law, the interests which the State claims to be protecting, and the interests of those who are disadvantaged by the classification." Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 30, 89 S. Ct. 5, 10, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968), quoted in Kramer v. Union Free School District, 395 U.S. 621, 626, 89 S.Ct. 1886, 23 L.Ed.2d 583 (1969).
Exclusion of persons from the vote must be "carefully scrutinized," and can be sustained only if "necessary to promote a compelling state interest." Kramer v. Union Free School District, supra, 395 U.S. at 627, 89 S.Ct. at 1890.4 It cannot be sustained unless "those excluded are in fact substantially less interested or affected than those the statute includes." Id. at 632, 89 S.Ct. at 1892.5 Thus the interest of the state in confining the franchise to owners of land in the district must be weighed against the interest of those said to be disadvantaged by this classification, namely, lessees of such property and non-landowning district residents.
It appears that there is compelling reason for disenfranchisement of nonowner, non-lessee residents of the district, but not, contrary to the majority's holding, for the exclusion of lessees of district land.
The relevant facts may be briefly summarized.
Much of California's agricultural land suffers from too little water or, intermittently, from too much. Conservation, distribution, and control of the water supply are major state concerns.6 The California Legislature has authorized a wide variety of special instrumentalities, including water storage districts, to provide a flexible response to water problems on a local basis. These special purpose...
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...for summary judgment, and that motion was not supported by affidavits. The circuit court, unlike the district court in Salyer (see 342 F.Supp. 144, 145), thus did not have before it any delineation of the relevant facts, such as the location of the district's facilities and of the area whic......
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Salyer Land Company v. Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District 8212 1456
...to voter qualifications where, as here, the expense as well as the benefit is proportional to the land's assessed value. Pp. 733—735. 342 F.Supp. 144, Thomas Keister Greer, Rocky Mount, Va., for appellants. Robert M. Newell, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee. Mr. Justice REHNQUIST delivered t......