Westfall v. Miller
| Decision Date | 18 March 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-40310,95-40310 |
| Citation | 77 F.3d 868 |
| Parties | Robert Lee WESTFALL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Wayne MILLER, Chief, National Firearms Act Branch, Department of the Treasury, and the United States of America, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Douglas T. Floyd, Sandoval, Floyd & Amick, Plano, TX, for plaintiff-appellant.
David Charles Lieberman, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, Department of Treasury, Washington, DC, Dane H. Smith, and Mike Bradford, U.S. Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Tyler, TX, for Miller and U.S.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Before KING, STEWART and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
Robert Lee Westfall appeals the district court's judgment, which held that Westfall lacked standing to challenge the law enforcement certification requirement, that even if Westfall had standing mandamus was an improper remedy and the Administrative Procedure Act did not provide jurisdiction over the action, and further that Westfall failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted because the law enforcement requirement does not violate the Tenth, Fifth, or Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. Finding that Westfall lacks standing, we affirm.
On March 16, 1993, Robert Lee Westfall contracted to purchase an AWC Systems Technology machinegun. Federal regulations require a transferee of a machinegun to submit to the National Firearms Act Branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("ATF") an ATF Form 4, which is an application for Tax Paid Transfer and Registration of Firearm. ATF Form 4 requires the transferee to obtain a certification from a local law enforcement official that, inter alia, the official has no knowledge that the transferee will use the firearm for an unlawful purpose.
Westfall, who resides in the City of Plano, Collin County, Texas, requested the required certification from the officials located within On August 27, 1993, Wayne Miller, the chief of the National Firearms Branch of the ATF, sent Westfall a letter refusing to process Westfall's application because it was incomplete without the required law enforcement certification. Miller also informed Westfall that the transferee has the burden of obtaining the law enforcement certification and advised Westfall of other officials who could give the certification. The proposed certifying officials included the head of the state police and certain judges.
five miles of his home: the City of Plano Chief of Police, the Sheriff of Collin County, and the Collin County District Attorney. Each of these officials declined or refused to complete the certification. Nevertheless, on July 7, 1993, Westfall submitted his Form 4 and other prescribed documents to the ATF. He attached a letter challenging the legal basis for the law enforcement certification. Additionally, Westfall attached an affidavit explaining that he had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain certification from the chief of police, the sheriff, and the district attorney in his area
Westfall filed suit on October 20, 1993 against Miller in his official capacity and the United States, seeking a declaration that the law enforcement provision of 27 C.F.R. § 179.85 violated the Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, as well as a writ of mandamus directing the ATF to approve his application. Westfall amended his complaint to add that § 179.85 also violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process. The ATF moved to dismiss Westfall's complaints, and soon thereafter Westfall sought summary judgment.
On March 28, 1995, the district court granted the ATF's motion to dismiss with prejudice. First, the district court held that Westfall did not have standing to challenge the certification requirement because he had not exhausted his certification options prior to filing suit. Second, the district court held that even if Westfall had standing, mandamus was not the appropriate remedy. Third, the district court concluded that the Administrative Procedure Act did not provide jurisdiction. Finally, the district court held that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted because the law enforcement certification requirement did not violate the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment was not violated because state officials do not have a duty to make the certification. Westfall could not establish a Fifth Amendment due process violation because he did not have a property right in possession of a machinegun. Further, Fourteenth Amendment due process was not implicated because there was no state action. Westfall timely appealed.
We review de novo the granting of a motion to dismiss, accepting as true all well pleaded assertions in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See American Waste & Pollution Control Co. v. Browning-Ferris, 949 F.2d 1384, 1386 (5th Cir.1991). Dismissal is appropriate only if the district court could not afford relief to the plaintiff under any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the complaint. Id. Accordingly, we will uphold the dismissal only if it "appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). In viewing the facts in favor of the plaintiff, we need not strain to find inferences favorable to the plaintiff. Therefore, we will view the facts in Westfall's favor, and Westfall is entitled to all inferences that surface from a fair and reasonable reading of the pleadings.
Before we can address the merits of Westfall's arguments we must determine whether Westfall is the appropriate party to raise these complaints. Just because Westfall does not like the firearms regulation does not give him standing to complain about its legality. The courts are designed to address only grievances of people who have suffered real injuries causally linked to the defendant's alleged unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief. See U.S. Const. art. III; see also Northeastern It has been established by a long line of cases that a party seeking to invoke a federal court's jurisdiction must demonstrate three things: (1) "injury in fact," by which we mean an invasion of a legally protected interest that is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical, ...; (2) a causal relationship between the injury and the challenged conduct, by which we mean that the injury fairly can be traced to the challenged action of the defendant, and has not resulted from the independent action of some third party not before the court, ...; and (3) a likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision, by which we mean that the prospect of obtaining relief from the injury as a result of a favorable ruling is not too speculative.
Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America v. City of Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656, 661-65, 113 S.Ct. 2297, 2301-02, 124 L.Ed.2d 586, 595-96 (1993). The Supreme Court explained the three elements of standing as follows
Id. (citations and quotations omitted). Accordingly, we must first examine the substance of Westfall's injuries before diving into the constitutional complaints alleged.
The district court found that Westfall lacked standing because he failed to exhaust his certification options before filing suit. Therefore, the court concluded that Westfall failed to demonstrate a causal link between the certification requirement and his injury.
Westfall argues that he fully complied with all constitutional and lawful requirements of 27 C.F.R. § 179.85. He claims that the ATF's contention that he must seek certification from the head of the Texas State Police (a position which he contends does not exist) or other officials is an attempt to unreasonably expand the list of qualified individuals who may certify his application. Finally, Westfall asserts that the Eleventh Circuit in Steele v. National Firearms Act Branch, 755 F.2d 1410 (11th Cir.1985), impliedly held that a firearm purchaser would have standing to challenge the regulations by holding that a seller lacked standing to challenge them.
On the other hand, the ATF argues that Westfall has failed to establish the necessary causal link between his injury and the regulation because he has not shown that he is not the cause in fact of his injury. The...
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