State ex rel. Sullivan v. Lujan

• Decision Date: 07 July 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-8019,91-8019
• Citation: 969 F.2d 877
• Parties: 22 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,483 The STATE of Wyoming, ex rel., Mike SULLIVAN as Governor and Joseph B. Meyer as Attorney General, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Manuel LUJAN, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; and the United States Department of the Interior; Laurance S. Rockefeller, an individual; The Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, a non-profit New York corporation; and Reserve Coal Properties Company, a Delaware corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 877

969 F.2d 877

22 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,483

The STATE of Wyoming, ex rel., Mike SULLIVAN as Governor and Joseph B. Meyer as Attorney General, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Manuel LUJAN, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; and the United States Department of the Interior; Laurance S. Rockefeller an individual; The Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, a non-profit New York corporation; and Reserve Coal Properties Company, a Delaware corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 91-8019.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

July 7, 1992.

Vicci M. Colgan, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen. (Joseph B. Meyer, Atty. Gen., with her on the brief), Cheyenne, Wyo., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Ellen J. Durkee, Attorney, Environment & Natural Resources Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Richard B. Stewart, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Richard A. Stacy, U.S. Atty., Carol A. Statkus and Maynard Grant, Asst. U.S. Attys., Cheyenne, Wyo., Fred R. Wagner and Martin W. Matzen, Attorneys, Environment & Natural Resources Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Mark D. Etchart, Office of the Solicitor, Dept. of the Interior, Washington, D.C., Lyle K. Rising, Office of the Regional Solicitor, Dept. of the Interior, Denver, Colo., with her on the brief), for defendants-appellees Manuel Lujan, in his official capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, and the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.

Richard M. Davis, Jr. (Kate M. Fox, with him on the brief), of Burgess, Davis, Carmichael & Cannon, Sheridan, Wyo., for defendant-appellee Reserve Coal Properties Co.

Gaines Gwathmey, III, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York City (Steven B. Rosenfeld and Daniel G. Cort, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York City, Marcelle Shoop and Jack D. Palma, II, of Holland & Hart, Cheyenne, Wyo., with him on the brief), for defendant-appellee The Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

Henry L. Diamond and Christopher W. Mahoney, of Beveridge & Diamond, Washington, D.C., and Carl L. Lathrop and J. Kent Rutledge, of Lathrop & Rutledge, Cheyenne, Wyo., filed a brief, for defendant-appellee Laurance S. Rockefeller.

SEYMOUR, SETH and ALDISERT, ^* Circuit Judges.

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.

The State of Wyoming appeals the district court's determination that it lacked standing to challenge the Secretary of the Interior's completed exchange of federally owned coal in the Ash Creek and Youngs Creek federal coal tracts in Sheridan County, Wyoming, for the JY Ranch conservation easement in the Grand Teton National Park.

This court is no stranger to litigation involving the Ash Creek tract. In Ash Creek Mining Co. v. Lujan, 934 F.2d 240, 243-44 (10th Cir.1991) (Ash Creek I ), Ash Creek Mining Company challenged the Secretary's decision to set aside the Ash Creek Coal Leasing Tract from competitive coal leasing and to designate it for exchange for the Whitney Benefits Tract. We held that Ash Creek's claim was not ripe for decision because Ash Creek had failed to show that the Department's proposed exchange constituted "final agency action" under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 704. We did not reach the question of standing.

In a companion case filed this date, however, we did meet the question. We held that in a challenge to a completed exchange of federal coal filed in the district court as a companion action to the within proceedings, Ash Creek Mining Company lacked Article III standing to oppose the completed exchange. Ash Creek Mining Co. v. Lujan, 969 F.2d 868 (10th Cir.1992) (Ash Creek II ). We reach the same conclusion in this appeal and affirm the judgment of the district court.

The district court had subject matter jurisdiction based on 28 U.S.C. § 1331. We have appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. The appeal was timely filed under Rule 4(a), Fed.R.App.P.

The district court held that the State of Wyoming lacked Article III standing to challenge the exchange of federal coal located in Sheridan County for the JY Ranch conservation easement. Our task on review is to decide whether the court erred as a matter of law. Other issues presented involve prudential limitations on a federal court's exercise of judicial power and raise questions as to the State of Wyoming's standing to assert claims under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

We review de novo the grant of a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. Riggs v. City of Albuquerque, 916 F.2d 582, 584 (10th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1623, 113 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991). A motion to dismiss is properly granted when it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff could prove no set of facts entitling it to relief. Huxall v. First State Bank, 842 F.2d 249, 251 (10th Cir.1988). We must construe the complaint in favor of the plaintiff, accepting as true all material allegations. American Mining Congress v. Thomas, 772 F.2d 640, 650 (10th Cir.1985) (citing Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206-07, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975)), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1158, 106 S.Ct. 2276, 90 L.Ed.2d 718 (1986).

I.

The facts are undisputed. On August 9, 1985, Laurance S. Rockefeller agreed to exchange a conservation easement on his ranch, known as the JY Ranch, located within the Grand Teton National Park in Northeast Wyoming, for federal coal owned by the Department of the Interior. In December 1987, Rockefeller donated the JY Ranch conservation easement to The Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, a non-profit organization, which then became the exchange proponent.

The Bureau of Land Management (hereinafter "the Bureau") subsequently prepared an environmental assessment of the proposed exchange. The Bureau concluded that the exchange presented no significant environmental impact and determined that an environmental impact statement was not necessary. On November 3, 1989, the Bureau published a Notice of Realty Action in the Federal Register outlining the proposed exchange of 2,560 acres of federal coal located in the Ash Creek and Youngs Creek federal coal tracts in Sheridan County, Wyoming, for 1106.49 acres of the JY Ranch conservation easement. The Notice provided for public comment/protest within 45 days.

The State of Wyoming and others filed oral and written protests to the exchange. On May 10, 1990, Sloan-Kettering conveyed the JY Ranch conservation easement to the United States by warranty deed. On May 11, 1990, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management dismissed the protests filed in response to the Notice. On the same date, the Bureau accepted title to the conservation easement on behalf of the National Park Service and issued Sloan-Kettering a patent granting title to the coal. Sloan-Kettering subsequently sold the coal rights to Reserve Coal Properties Company.

A.

On July 10, 1990, the State of Wyoming, ex rel., Mike Sullivan as Governor and Joseph B. Meyer as Attorney General (hereinafter "the State"), filed a four-count complaint in federal district court against the Secretary of the Interior, the Department of the Interior, Rockefeller, Sloan-Kettering, Consolidation Coal Company and Reserve Coal Properties seeking judicial review of the Secretary's action and requesting that the exchange be voided. The first three counts alleged violations of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), 43 U.S.C. § 1701, et seq., based on the Secretary's failure (1) to act in the public interest, (2) to satisfy the requirement that the exchanged lands be of equal value and (3) to follow the Bureau's internal guidelines respecting land exchanges. The fourth count alleged that the Secretary had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4321, et seq., because the environmental assessment was inadequate and because an impact statement should have been prepared.

The State alleged that it had been injured by the removal of the coal from its "coal bank." It claimed that if the coal properties had been leased through the competitive leasing system, the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA), 30 U.S.C. §§ 191, 207(a), would have entitled the State to one-half of the royalty payment on the lease, the payment to be no less than 12.5% of the coal's value. The State asked for an order setting aside the patent and voiding the transfer of the coal from Sloan-Kettering to Reserve Coal Properties.

B.

All defendants moved to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and on March 15, 1991, the district court dismissed the action for lack of standing. The court determined that it could "fashion no order which would redress the injuries claimed by plaintiff; there is no 'substantial nexus between the relief requested and the elimination of the plaintiff's injury.' " Dist.Ct.Order at 6, 1991 WL 352420 (quoting Glover River Org. v. United States Dep't of Interior, 675 F.2d 251, 255 (10th Cir.1982) (footnote omitted)). The court observed that "[i]t is far from 'concrete and certain', that, if the decision of the Secretary were to be reversed, the coal would ever be open to competitive leasing." Id. at 6-7 (citation omitted).

As an additional ground for rejecting the claim under the Environmental Policy Act, the district court determined that the State's interest did not fall within the statute's "zone of interests." The State alleged that the monies lost by the Secretary's failure to lease the coal would have gone to roads, highways and other public facilities, necessarily resulting in an impact on the environment. The court rejected this purported injury, noting that such an environmental impact would have resulted from state law and not from the Secretary's actions. Id. at 7. The court also determined that neither the Land Policy and Management Act, nor the Mineral Leasing Act, nor any other statute grants the State a right to contest the...