Stephens v. County of Albemarle, Va

• Decision Date: 09 May 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-1478.,07-1478.
• Parties: Patricia STEPHENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE, VIRGINIA; City of Charlottesville; Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

524 F.3d 485

Patricia STEPHENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE, VIRGINIA; City of Charlottesville; Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 07-1478.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: March 18, 2008.

Decided: May 9, 2008.

ARGUED: Deborah Chasen Wyatt, Wyatt & Associates, P.L.C., Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellant. Alvaro Antonio Inigo, Zunka, Milnor, Carter & Inigo, Ltd., Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Richard H. Milnor, Zunka, Milnor, Carter & Inigo, Ltd., Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellees.

Before: SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR, Associate Justice (Retired), Supreme Court of the United States, sitting by designation, WILLIAMS, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Chief Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Associate Justice O'CONNOR and Senior Judge HAMILTON joined.

OPINION

WILLIAMS, Chief Judge:

After Patricia Stephens's husband, Wayne Stephens, died in an explosion at a landfill near Ivy, Virginia, she brought this action under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 (West 2003 & Supp.2006) against the landfill's operators—the County of Albemarle, the City of Charlottesville, and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority ("RSWA")¹ (collectively "Appellees"). Ms. Stephens claims that two settlement agreements between Appellees and third-parties unconstitutionally conditioned government benefits on the relinquishment of the third-parties' First Amendment rights to speak freely about the landfill, thereby depriving her and her husband of their First Amendment rights to receive information. She further claims that this violation proximately caused Wayne Stephens's death.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Appellees, reasoning that the settlement agreements did not make any government benefit contingent on the surrender of First Amendment rights. We conclude, however, that because Ms. Stephens, both individually and as her husband's personal representative, lacks standing to pursue her claims, the district court was without subject-matter jurisdiction to consider the merits of her claims. We therefore vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for dismissal of Ms. Stephens's case.

I.

This appeal is from the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellees, so we review the facts in the light most favorable to Ms. Stephens. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (noting that all evidence must be construed in the light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment).

Ms. Stephens resides in the area of Albemarle County, Virginia known as Ivy, near the landfill operated by Appellees. Her husband, Wayne, worked as the landfill's manager until April 10, 2003, when a cutting torch that he was using to cut old oil storage tanks for resale as scrap metal sparked an explosion, killing him. Cutting fuel tanks in this manner was a serious violation of the regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA"). OSHA cited the RSWA for six separate serious violations in connection with the explosion. These failings, however, do not represent the basis for the present litigation, which focuses instead on Appellees' actions several years earlier, when a number of Stephens's neighbors raised concerns about the landfill's environmental impacts.

In the mid-1990s, plans to maximize the amount of trash that could be put into the landfill spurred a number of individuals living near the landfill to form a citizens group called the Ivy Steering Committee (hereinafter the "Committee"). Concerned primarily about water and air pollution from the landfill, Committee members educated themselves "about the issues at the landfill" and met, usually on a weekly basis, to discuss those issues. (J.A. at 207.) On a number of occasions, Committee members relayed their concerns to regulatory agencies, at one point writing letters to the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") and writing many letters to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Committee members also wrote letters to the RSWA, and some members, particularly David Booth and Ed Strange, often called the RSWA to voice concerns. The Committee did not make public the minutes of its meetings. It did, however, maintain a website and erected a billboard with a "Mr. Yucky face"-style design that was related to issues of water pollution.

The Stephenses were not members of the Committee and did not attend the meetings. In the course of this lawsuit, Ms. Stephens has, however, gathered information through discovery regarding the group's discussions. One member, Ed Strange, stated that although the concerns discussed "most often involved water and air pollution, ... discussions were by no means limited to these concerns and in fact covered virtually any activity taking place at the landfill." (J.A. at 274.) Another member, Daniel Burke, agreed that the discussions could extend to, for example, worker safety, explaining that if anyone in the Committee knew about a practice that endangered the life or safety of an employee at the landfill, it would definitely have come up in the meetings. Burke did not, however, remember discussing any worker-safety concerns that were not coextensive with the Committee members' own concerns about water and air quality. He explained that, before learning of Wayne Stephens's death in the newspaper, he personally did not have any misgivings about this aspect of the landfill's operations, as he had "no reason to ... believe that they weren't professional at burying trash." (J.A. at 246.)

In 1998, the Committee, dissatisfied with the results of its calls and letters, instituted a lawsuit against Appellees. In Weber v. RSWA, 3:98cv0019 (W.D.Va.1998), twenty-four plaintiffs, including individuals living near the landfill as well as the St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church and the Peacock Hill Water Authority, alleged that the landfill was contaminating the surrounding air and water, in violation of federal and state environmental statutes and state nuisance law. Appellees settled the Weber lawsuit with all but four of the plaintiffs by entering into two separate settlement agreements in 2000.

Appellees entered into one of the settlement agreements (the "Booth Agreement") with David and Maureen Booth, whose 26-acre property abutted the landfill. Pursuant to the Booth Agreement, Appellees agreed to purchase the Booths' property. The Booths, in exchange, agreed to, among other things, release their claims against Appellees and sign two letters withdrawing complaints they had made about the landfill to regulatory agencies. Of particular relevance to this appeal, the Booth Agreement also provided that:

The Booths, to the extent that they have control over such matters and to the extent possible, agree to remove the Ivy Steering Committee website and any language or images from any personal websites and billboards, from the public domain which deal with any of the matters raised in the Action or with respect to the Ivy landfill. Further, the Booths will cease opposition to the Ivy landfill and any further permits for which it may apply, will refrain from directly or indirectly opposing the landfill or permitting, will make no further private or public adverse comments about the landfill, and will not engage or solicit from others any opposition to or legal action opposed to said landfill or its permitting process.

(J.A. at 57-58.)

Another settlement agreement, the "Burke Agreement," covered the remaining settling plaintiffs. In the Burke Agreement, Appellees agreed to modify a pending permit application to construct and operate a new waste disposal cell ("Cell 5") at the landfill, as well as to handle particular wastes in certain ways, continue to refuse certain wastes at the landfill, continue to monitor groundwater, purchase certain property from certain plaintiffs, monitor air quality, pay Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA") costs, and pay attorneys' fees. Appellees also agreed to install water treatment devices if groundwater contamination exceeded a certain level and to provide the plaintiffs with potable water if contamination exceeded EPA standards; these obligations are not contingent on the settling plaintiffs fulfilling the terms of the Burke Agreement. In exchange, the settling plaintiffs released their claims against Appellees and also agreed not to oppose the Cell 5 permit² and to remove from their websites any language or images "which deal with any of the matters raised in the Action with respect to the Ivy landfill." (J.A. at 99.)

David Booth used the funds he received pursuant to the Booth Agreement to relocate to a new home with his wife. Following the settlement, he "never looked back," (J.A. at 186), and thus could not say with certainty whether the Committee continued to hold meetings after the two settlement agreements went into effect. He did believe the meetings continued, albeit with a smaller group. Although Booth never actually read the terms of his settlement agreement, he perceived that its restrictions on his speech were extremely broad. As a result, there have been "times [he] wanted to say something and realized [he] could not." (J.A. at 163.) Currently, Booth "d[oesn't] really care," (J.A. at 188), whether a court invalidates the speech restrictions in the Booth Agreement. He does, however, resent the encumbrance it represents. Indeed, he feels that "anybody should be able to have a free say," and that he has topics he would like to talk about were he not constrained by the agreement. (J.A. at 162.)

Similarly, Daniel Burke resents his own settlement agreement to the extent that it restricts his ability to oppose the Cell 5 permit. Offended by the idea that "the local government tried to gag its own citizens," he "wanted to feel free to...