Arrington v. City of Fairfield, Alabama

Decision Date07 August 1969
Docket NumberNo. 26781.,26781.
Citation414 F.2d 687
PartiesEd ARRINGTON et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF FAIRFIELD, ALABAMA et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Demetrius C. Newton, Birmingham, Ala., Charles H. Jones, Jr., Cambridge, Mass., Michael Davidson, Jonathan Shapiro, Jack Greenberg, New York City, for appellants.

Frank B. Parsons, City Atty., Fairfield, Ala., J. Clewis Trucks, Fairfield, Ala., for appellees Fairfield, Alabama Housing Authority, Mrs. Wilma Andrews, in her capacity as Director, and C. J. Donald.

Kenneth Perrine, Birmingham, Ala., Leader, Tenenbaum, Perrine & Swedlaw, for Engel Realty Co.

James W. May, Corretti, Newsom, Rogers & May, Douglas P. Corretti, Birmingham, Ala., as amicus curiae of Birmingham Bd. of Realtors, Inc.

Before COLEMAN and GODBOLD, Circuit Judges, and SCOTT, District Judge.

SCOTT, District Judge:

This is a class action in equity by Negro residents of the Englewood section of Fairfield, Alabama, seeking an injunction to prohibit the City of Fairfield and Engel Realty Company from displacing them from their residences and their consequent removal from the City of Fairfield in the absence of adequate relocation housing in the City of Fairfield. Plaintiffs' complaint was dismissed by the District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. We hold that the District Court was in error, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The complaint is founded upon Title 28, U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4), Title 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988 and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs-appellants also seek preliminary and permanent injunctions to "restrain defendants from continuing their present course of conduct, policies, practices, custom and usage of providing municipal facilities on a discriminatory basis and from pursuing an urban renewal program in such a way as will cause the involuntary relocation of plaintiffs and members of their class, without providing for suitable relocation within the City of Fairfield, and from making relocation outside the City inevitable by zone changes which foreclose adequate residential redevelopment".

The primary defendants in the action are the City of Fairfield and Engel Realty Company, a private company with which the City of Fairfield contracted to commercially develop the Englewood area. Other defendants named in the complaint are various city officials and agencies who have acted in the name of the City and the commissioner of the Fairfield Housing Authority.

In their complaint, filed on July 11, 1968, plaintiffs sought to preliminarily and permanently enjoin the City of Fairfield and others from proceeding with the condemnation, acquisition or demolition of properties in Englewood. Without answering, all defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and then moved for summary judgment. A hearing on plaintiffs' motion for a temporary injunction to enjoin displacement pending a final hearing was held on August 9, 1968, and at the conclusion of the hearing the District Court denied plaintiffs' motion. The Court entered judgment on August 13, 1968, granting the defendants' motion to dismiss and motion for summary judgment.

Plaintiffs filed notice of appeal on August 22, 1968, and on September 16, 1968, moved for an injunction pending appeal. A panel of this Court granted the motion for the injunction pending appeal on October 10, 1968. This injunction was vacated on February 17, 1969. by the present panel.

The plaintiffs live in Englewood, a predominantly Negro section of Fairfield. As found by the court below, most of the buildings are structurally defective and do not meet the health standards of the City of Fairfield. The streets are inadequate and unpaved and an open drainage ditch runs through the entire area. Furthermore, the majority of the plaintiffs are tenants.

In 1964 an interstate highway was proposed for building through portions of Englewood. To comply with state law, the City of Fairfield rezoned Englewood from predominantly residential to tourist and commercial.

During 1966 and 1967 the Fairfield Housing Authority and the regional office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) discussed informal proposals for an urban renewal program in Englewood, which qualified as a "slum" area. The project was to displace 161 families of whom 150 were Negroes.

Before it was notified of the outcome of its request for federal urban renewal funds, the City of Fairfield decided to proceed with the commercial development of Englewood. The mayor met with owners of the property and Engel Realty Company, agent for the owners, to determine the feasibility of building a motel near the interstate highway in order to promote tourist business in the City. In furtherance of its plan, the City adopted the following resolution:

"BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Fairfield that the Mayor be and hereby is authorized to enter into a contract with Engel Realty Company in consideration of Engel Realty Company\'s completion of a commercial development in the Englewood area of the City of Fairfield, the City of Fairfield will install drainage pipe in and cover the drainage ditch in that area commonly known as `tar ditch\' and that the City of Fairfield will complete such work prior to the completion of the site preparation for the proposed development by the Engel Realty Company.
"Adopted 4th day of December, 1967.
"Approved 5th day of December, 1967."

In dismissing the plaintiffs' claim, the District Court made the following findings of fact:

"1. That the plaintiffs were not property owners in Englewood; it concluded that, as such, they had no standing to invoke the jurisdiction of the court;
"2. That there was no urban renewal program under submission, as provided by 42 U.S.C. Section 1451, and that the City had no intention of trying to renew the project;
"3. That the property involved was "blighted" and 90% of the buildings were structurally defective and subject to being condemned for health reasons;
"4. The property was not being condemned by the City or Housing Authority under the power of eminent domain;
"5. That Engel Realty did attempt to purchase the property for the purpose of building a motel and other commercial enterprises, but that it was not acting as an agent for the City, Housing Authority, or any other defendant in its attempt to purchase the property; and
"6. That Engel Realty did not participate in the city\'s urban renewal program."

The trial court concluded that the plaintiffs as tenants had no interest in the property or in the contracts regarding the property and, therefore, had no right to invoke the jurisdiction of the federal court. The Court further stated that the director of the Housing Authority, clerk of the City, members of the City Council and planning committee and the mayor of the City were not proper party defendants.

Initially, it is important to recognize the narrow issues on this appeal. A determination of the merits is not before us. This Court is not involved with fact issues. The District Court heard oral testimony on motions to dismiss and for summary judgment and then dismissed the case for lack of standing and for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. The fact issues of discrimination and displacement have not been determined by the District Court. If there is standing and a good claim for relief is alleged, the case should be tried in the District Court. The forming of an equitable remedy in the first instance is for the sound discretion of the trial judge.

STANDING TO SUE

Appellants assert that as impoverished Negro tenants of the Englewood area of Fairfield they have standing to claim that displacement from their residences precipitated by state action and in the absence of relocation housing within the City, will deny them rights secured by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments and Acts of Congress which enforce these rights.

The District Court never reached the merits of the claim because it concluded that the "plaintiffs having no interest in the property or interest in contracts regarding the same, have no right to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court." In its findings of fact the District Court stated: "There is no evidence before the Court disclosing the true owners of said property described in the complaint and it does not appear that any party owning said property is now before the Court."1

The District Court attached significance to the fact that appellants are tenants and are not property owners. What appellants seek to protect, however, is their right to reside in the City by owning or renting housing. The crux of their claim is not deprivation of property without due process i.e., the "property right" of a lessee or tenant, but violation of equal protection.

In order to have standing to assert that a state has denied plaintiff his constitutional rights, a plaintiff is required to show "a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy". Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1961). He must be adversely affected to a judicially cognizable degree by the government action he seeks to challenge. See, generally, Davis, Standing: Taxpayers and Others, 35 U. Chi.L.Rev. 601 (1968). Here plaintiffs' stake in the outcome of the case is immediate and personal and they stand to suffer economic injury if they lose. The right which they allege has been violated; namely, the right not to be subjected to racial discrimination by state action, is one which falls within a constitutionally protected area. Cf. Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 88 S. Ct. 2186, 20 L.Ed.2d 1189 (1968).

If the plaintiffs' allegations are correct, the adverse effects on them would be "immediate and personal". See Norwalk Core v. Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, 395 F.2d 920, 927 (2d Cir. 1968)....

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