Craft v. Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division

• Decision Date: 12 April 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-1350,75-1350
• Citation: 534 F.2d 684
• Parties: Willie S. CRAFT et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MEMPHIS LIGHT, GAS AND WATER DIVISION et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 684

534 F.2d 684

Willie S. CRAFT et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MEMPHIS LIGHT, GAS AND WATER DIVISION et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 75-1350.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Dec. 16, 1975.

Decided April 12, 1976.

Thomas M. Daniel, Memphis & Shelby County Legal Service, Memphis, Tenn., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Frierson M. Graves, Jr., Memphis, Tenn., for defendants-appellees.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and PECK and MILLER, Circuit Judges.

JOHN W. PECK, Circuit Judge.

Named plaintiffs-appellants, Willie S. Craft, his wife Mary Craft, Sarah Parks, Ida Bell Holmes, and Annie Sue Funzie ¹ filed this purported class action in district court challenging defendants-appellees' policies of terminating and of refusing to connect electric, gas and water services (collectively hereinafter "utilities") as unconstitutionally denying appellants' classes procedural

due process and equal protection, respectively. The district court, after trial, found that there was no civil rights jurisdiction over municipally-owned MLG&W, ² that a class action would be inappropriate, and, distinguishing Palmer v. Columbia Gas, 479 F.2d 153 (6th Cir. 1973), that appellees' termination procedures comported with constitutional due process. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

CLASS ACTION

Preliminarily, we find no error in the district court's refusal to certify a class action. The district court

"conclude(d) that this is not a proper case for class action (as to damages), however, except to the extent of declaratory judgment or other relief granted which may accrue to the benefit of others similarly situated to (appellants). The questions of fact common to members of the class on the question of damages, particularly, and also with respect to circumstances of a purported dispute over charges would predominate as to individuals rather than all members of the alleged class. The Court is not convinced that claims of the representative parties are typical of claims that may be made by the purported class with regard to various and myriad situations or circumstances pertaining to due process violations, if any."

As to a Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3) class asserting damage claims, ³ there would be no predominate common question of fact. See Carter v. Kilbane, 519 F.2d 1370 (6th Cir. 1975); Hayes v. Board of Regents, 495 F.2d 1326, 1329 (6th Cir. 1974). As to a Rule 23(b)(2) class asserting claims to injunctive and declaratory relief, the district court properly recognized that such relief to the extent "granted (would) . . . accrue to the benefit of others similarly situated" and, consequently, as the Eighth Circuit has recognized, "(n)o useful purpose would be served by permitting this case to proceed as a class action" because "(t)he determination of the constitutional question can be made by the Court and the rules and regulations determined to be constitutional or unconstitutional regardless of whether this action is treated as an individual action or as a class action." Ihrke v. Northern States Power Co., 459 F.2d 566, 572 (8th Cir.), vacated and remanded to dismiss as moot, 409 U.S. 815, 93 S.Ct. 66, 34 L.Ed.2d 72 (1972). Accord, Carter v. Butz, 479 F.2d 1084, 1089 (3rd Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1094, 1103, 94 S.Ct. 727, 38 L.Ed.2d 559 (1973); Martinez v. Richardson, 472 F.2d 1121, 1126-27 (10th Cir. 1973); Cockerel v. Caldwell, 378 F.Supp. 491, 494 (W.D.Ky.1974) (three-judge court); Doe v. Wohlgemuth, 376 F.Supp. 173, 181-82 (W.D.Pa.1974) (three-judge court), vacated on other grounds sub. nom. Doe v. Beal, 523 F.2d 611, 613 n.2 (3rd Cir. 1975) (en banc); Koehler v. Ogilvie, 53 F.R.D. 98, 101 (N.D.Ill.1971) (three-judge court), aff'd mem., 405 U.S. 906, 92 S.Ct. 938, 30 L.Ed.2d 777 (1972); Holt v. Brown, 336 F.Supp. 2, 6 (W.D.Ky.1971) (three-judge court); Nelson v. Likins, 389 F.Supp. 1234, 1239 (D.Minn.1974); Mohr v. Jordan, 370 F.Supp. 1149, 1151 n.3 (D.Md.1974), aff'd, (No. 74-1496, 4th Cir., filed July 31, 1974);

Rappaport v. Katz, 62 F.R.D. 512, 515 (S.D.N.Y.1974).

DUE PROCESS

On the merits, the Fourteenth Amendment requires due process only if "state action" is "depriv(ing) any person of life, liberty or property." See, e. g., Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 95 S.Ct. 729, 735-36, 42 L.Ed.2d 725, 735 (1975); Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 349, 357, 95 S.Ct. 449, 453-57, 42 L.Ed.2d 477, 483, 488 (1974).

Appellees claim that the due process clause has no application because MLG&W "operates just like a private utility in that it is required to have rates sufficient to meet its services . . . and has no governmental immunity." We conclude, however, that since it is municipally owned and controlled, the actions of MLG&W are clearly "state actions." Davis v. Weir,497 F.2d 139, 143-44 (5th Cir. 1974); Stanford v. Gas Serv. Co., 346 F.Supp. 717, 720 (D.Kan.1972). Jackson, supra, is inapposite because the majority and two dissenters independently recognized the distinction between " private utility compan(ies) and . . . municipal utility," 419 U.S. at 351, 95 S.Ct. at 454 n.8, 42 L.Ed.2d at 484, or "state (government)-owned" companies, 419 U.S. at 372, 95 S.Ct. at 464, 42 L.Ed.2d at 496. The majority, in fact, at least five times recognized that Metropolitan Edison was "private" or "privately owned and operated." 419 U.S. at 349-351, 95 S.Ct. at 451, 453, 454 n.8, 457, 42 L.Ed.2d at 482-484.

Though the Supreme Court has refrained from deciding whether a "claim to continued (utility) service was 'property' " for due process purposes,419 U.S. at 359, 95 S.Ct. at 457, 42 L.Ed.2d at 488, this court in Palmer, supra, implicitly assumed and other courts have expressly held that claims to continued utility service constitute "property." Condosta v. Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc., 400 F.Supp. 358, 365-366 (D.Vt.1975); Donnelly v. City of Eureka, 399 F.Supp. 64, 67-68 (D.Kan.1975); Limuel v. Southern Union Gas Co., 378 F.Supp. 964, 966-67 (W.D.Tex.1974); Bronson v. Consolidated Edison Co., 350 F.Supp. 443, 447 (S.D.N.Y.1972); Stanford, supra, 346 F.Supp. at 721; Davis v. Weir, 328 F.Supp. 317, 321 (N.D.Ga.1971). See Salisbury v. Southern New England Tel. Co., 365 F.Supp. 1023 (D.Conn.1973) (continued telephone service "assume(d to be) . . . cognizable right within the due process clause"). But see Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 483 F.2d 754, 759-62 (3rd Cir. 1973), aff'd on other grounds, 419 U.S. 345, 95 S.Ct. 449, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974).

Having "determined that due process applies, the question remains what process is due." Goss, supra, 419 U.S. at 577, 95 S.Ct. at 738, 42 L.Ed.2d at 737, quoting Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2600, 33 L.Ed.2d 484, 494 (1972). Though "(d)ue process is, perhaps, the least frozen concept of our law," Palmer, supra, 479 F.2d at 165, quoting Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 20-21, 76 S.Ct. 585, 591, 100 L.Ed. 891, 899-900 (1956), and defies "any concept of inflexible procedures universally applicable," Goss, supra, 419 U.S. at 578, 95 S.Ct. at 738, 42 L.Ed.2d at 737, quoting Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 895, 81 S.Ct. 1743, 1748, 6 L.Ed.2d 1230, 1236 (1961), Palmer has established that certain utility termination procedures fail to afford constitutional due process. See also Limuel, supra, 378 F.Supp. at 969; Bronson, supra, 350 F.Supp. at 448-50. "As a minimum," Palmer requires, notice and opportunity to be heard "at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner." Palmer, supra, 479 F.2d at 165-66.

Notice. Constitutionally sufficient "shut-off notice . . . (must) provide the customer with the information he needs to quickly and intelligently take available steps to prevent the threatened termination of service." 479 F.2d at 166.

                Yet the MLG&W "final notice" 4 no better informs customers, like the Crafts, who dispute the underlying liability than the constitutionally deficient notice in Palmer.  Like the Columbia Gas notice therein, the MLG&W notice fails to mention "that a dispute concerning the amount due might be resolved through discussion with representatives of the company."  Nor did the notice, at least prior to the opinion of the district court, inform the customer that "(c)redit (c)ounselors are available to clear up any questions, (to) discuss disputed bills or to make any needed adjustments."  5  See Marshall, J., dissenting in Jackson, supra, 419 U.S. at 371-373, 95 S.Ct. at 464-65, 42 L.Ed.2d at 495-496.  Like the Columbia Gas notice, the MLG&W notice only warns the  
                customer to pay or face termination.  See Davis v. Weir, 359 F.Supp. 1023, 1026 (N.D.Ga.1973); Bronson, supra, 350 F.Supp. at 450.  That the MLG&W employee, who would physically terminate the services, was instructed to "attempt" a personal contact with the customer by knocking on the door immediately prior to termination is, of course, no notice to those customers absent from their residences.  6 Moreover, even if a contact were made, the employee was instructed to terminate unless there was a "hardship," illness, or "payment (were) in the mail," rather than informing the customer of his alternatives, the notice of which Palmer requires
                

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The MLG&W "final notice," however, is constitutionally sufficient for a customer like Parks, who asserts an inability to pay an admitted liability. The customer "having difficulty paying (the) utility bill" is instructed to "bring (the) bill to (certain) neighborhood credit counselors for assistance" and-or to the MLG&W offices "to discuss a utility payment plan." See footnote 4, supra.

Hearing. Constitutionally sufficient hearing procedures cannot depend solely on "unsupported assumption(s) of corporate good faith." Palmer,supra, 479 F.2d at 168. Like Columbia Gas, MLG&W has "no established procedures for resolution of disputes." Indeed, the MLG&W secretary-treasurer at first refused to acknowledge that there could be a...