Swin Resource Systems, Inc. v. Lycoming County, Pa. Through Lycoming County Solid Waste Dept.

• Decision Date: 25 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-5500,88-5500
• Parties: , 20 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,017 SWIN RESOURCE SYSTEMS, INC., Appellant, v. LYCOMING COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, Acting Through the LYCOMING COUNTY SOLID WASTE DEPARTMENT; Wilt, Dolly M.; and Smith, Gene; and Morningstar, Lora P., all in their respective official capacities as Commissioners of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania and in each of their individual capacities; and Alexander, Wayne I., in his official capacity as General Manager of Solid Waste Facilities of the Lycoming County Solid Waste Department and in his individual capacity, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 245

883 F.2d 245

58 USLW 2139, 20 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,017

SWIN RESOURCE SYSTEMS, INC., Appellant, v. LYCOMING COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, Acting Through the LYCOMING

COUNTY SOLID WASTE DEPARTMENT; Wilt, Dolly M.; and Smith,

Gene; and Morningstar, Lora P., all in their respective

official capacities as Commissioners of Lycoming County,

Pennsylvania and in each of their individual capacities;

and Alexander, Wayne I., in his official capacity as General

Manager of Solid Waste Facilities of the Lycoming County

Solid Waste Department and in his individual capacity, Appellees.

No. 88-5500.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Oct. 31, 1988.

Decided Aug. 25, 1989.

Rehearing and Rehearing In Banc Denied Sept., 1989.

John P. Krill, Jr. (argued), Carleton O. Strouss, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, Harrisburg, Pa., Richard A. Gahr, Gahr & Sholder, Williamsport, Pa., for appellant.

J. David Smith (argued), Paul J. Ryan, McCormick, Reeder, Nichols, Sarno, Bahl & Knecht, Williamsport, Pa., for appellees.

Before GIBBONS, Chief Judge, and BECKER and WEIS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

BECKER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Swin Resource Systems, Inc. ("Swin") owns and operates a solid waste processing facility in Hemlock Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Defendant-appellee Lycoming County ("Lycoming"), a Pennsylvania county, operates a landfill in Brady Township, in Lycoming. The case at bar arises from Lycoming's decision to charge a lower rate for the reception and disposal of waste generated within Lycoming and nearby counties than for waste generated outside that area. In its complaint filed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Swin contended that this price difference violated the commerce clause by impermissibly interfering with and discriminating against interstate commerce, denied Swin equal protection of the laws and due process of law, violated a federal land leasing statute (43 U.S.C. Sec. 931c (1982)), and constituted a breach of contract. Named as defendants were Lycoming and various county officials.

The defendants moved to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). With respect to the commerce clause claim, the defendants asserted that the marketing practices of the county-operated landfill fall within the protection of the so-called market-participant doctrine and hence escape scrutiny under the commerce clause. With respect to the equal protection claim, the defendants asserted that Lycoming's pricing scheme was rationally related to the legitimate purpose of presuming landfill capacity for local waste. With respect to the federal statutory claim, the defendants contended that the statute did not give rise to a private right of action.

The district court, in an opinion reported at 678 F.Supp. 1116 (M.D.Pa 1988), agreed with the position of defendants and held that Swin's federal claims (both constitutional and statutory) failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. It therefore dismissed these claims pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). It also dismissed the pendent state breach of contract claim for want of jurisdiction. Swin then filed a motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) to alter or amend the judgment and an alternative motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 62(c) for an injunction pending appeal. Swin did not seek leave by this motion or otherwise to amend its complaint in order to present additional facts or theories in support of its claims. Swin did, however, attach to its motion papers a deposition of a county employee associated with the initiation and operation of the landfill supplying additional factual data.

The district court denied Swin's motions, and Swin appealed from the district court's order refusing to alter or amend the judgment. A timely appeal from a denial of a Rule 59 motion to alter or amend the judgment also " 'brings up the underlying judgment for review.' " Federal Kemper Insurance Co. v. Rauscher, 807 F.2d 345, 348 (3d Cir.1986) (citation omitted).

In deciding (and reviewing) a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, a court must accept as true the factual allegations in the complaint and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom. The complaint may be dismissed "only if it is certain that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations." Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2232, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984). Facts contained in the deposition that Swin submitted must not be considered if they fall outside the ambit of the complaint. See Biesenbach v. Guenther, 588 F.2d 400, 402 (3d Cir.1978). We will consider the facts stated in the deposition, to the extent that they fall within the ambit of the complaint, as illustrative of those facts which Swin could prove if its complaint were reinstated.

On appeal Swin has abandoned its due process and pendent state claims. We are therefore faced with three questions: (1) whether the marketing practices of the county-operated landfill fall within the market participant doctrine and hence escape scrutiny under the commerce clause; (2) whether these marketing practices violate the equal protection clause; and (3) whether the federal land leasing statute creates a private right of action in Swin's favor. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.

I. THE PLEADED FACTS

A. Swin's Complaint

On June 5, 1973, the United States Bureau of Prisons granted a thirty-year permit to Lycoming to operate a public landfill on a 130-acre parcel on the federal prison reservation in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The permit required Lycoming to pay all expenses associated with operating the landfill and to dispose of certain Bureau of Prisons waste without charge. In May 1974, Lycoming applied for and subsequently received a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission in connection with the construction and operation of the landfill. The county opened the landfill in 1978 and has continued to operate it since that time through the Lycoming County Solid Waste Department.

Swin's waste processing facility receives solid waste from Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Swin recycles some of the waste and sells it to businesses in several states. The remaining waste is compacted into bales and transported to landfills for disposal. Swin can produce 30 tons per hour of this baled solid waste and is presently producing an average of 300 tons per day.

On March 6, 1986, Lycoming notified Swin by letter that it would accept Swin's baled solid waste for a price in the "range of" $10 per ton, promising to give Swin the exact price after the completion of a waste study within the next month. The letter also indicated that higher rates applied to waste generated outside an area comprised of Lycoming, Union, Snyder, Northumberland, and Montour Counties and part of Columbia County, the other five counties being in the vicinity of Lycoming. Lycoming had apparently regarded Swin's baled waste as originating from within the 5 1/2-county area, since from November 1986 to January 1987 it accepted Swin's baled waste at the reduced rate. The landfill has sufficient capacity to serve the needs of both the 5 1/2-county area and Swin during the term of the thirty-year Bureau of Prisons lease.

Beginning in January 1987, however, and continuing until September 14, 1987, Lycoming charged Swin $10 per ton for waste generated within Lycoming, $13.25 per ton for waste generated within the remaining counties of the 5 1/2-county area, and $17.20 per ton (less $1.50 for unloading) for waste generated outside the 5 1/2-county area. In March 1987, Lycoming instructed Swin to reduce the volume of waste it delivered to the landfill until a new field was "on line." Swin accordingly reduced its deliveries to 100 tons per day. Because of this volume limitation, Swin was compelled to scale back its business operations substantially, as other waste disposal sites were scarce, more distant, and more costly.

Effective September 14, 1987, Lycoming raised the rate for solid waste originating outside the 5 1/2-county area to $30 per ton. Lycoming did not raise the $10 and $13.25 per ton rates for waste originating within the 5 1/2-county area. Lycoming charged Swin the $30 per ton rate and limited Swin indefinitely to delivering 100 tons per day. Under these conditions, Swin cannot economically use the Lycoming landfill, and it is no longer hauling waste there.

B. The Deposition Attached to Swin's Post-Judgment Motions

Swin submitted the deposition of Jerry Walls, the longtime Executive Director of the Lycoming County Planning Commission, the functions of which include planning how Lycoming residents are to dispose of their solid waste. According to the deposition, Lycoming received $1.3 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission to assist Lycoming in the construction of the landfill.

Walls describes the recycling system Lycoming has implemented to reduce the waste flow into the landfill. He testified that there were approximately nine to ten years of capacity left in the landfill. In addition, Walls describes the steps Lycoming took to ensure that enough municipalities used its landfill to enable Lycoming to pay back the landfill's long-term indebtedness with user revenues. The Planning Commission developed a model municipal ordinance (subsequently adopted by a number of Lycoming municipalities) that permitted Lycoming to designate the landfill (or transfer station) to which a municipality's waste haulers brought the waste they collected. Lycoming also entered into long-term disposal contracts with a number of municipalities.

II. THE COMMERCE CLAUSE CLAIM

The commerce clause grants Congress the power "[t]o regulate Commerce ... among the several States...." U.S. Const. Art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 3. The Supreme Court, however, has long interpreted the clause to prohibit states from taking certain actions respecting interstate commerce even...