Bowker v. Morton, 75-2004
| Citation | 541 F.2d 1347 |
| Decision Date | 31 August 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-2004,75-2004 |
| Parties | Victor BOWKER et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Rogers C. B. MORTON et al., Defendants-Appellees, and Kern County Water Agency et al., Intervenors-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) |
Before BARNES, WRIGHT and SNEED, Circuit Judges.
This case comes before us on interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) from a dismissal by the district court of one of plaintiffs' claims. The action involves the question of whether federal reclamation law is applicable to a state irrigation project which utilizes several facilities which were jointly constructed by the state and federal governments. The major implication of the application of federal reclamation law would be a requirement that each recipient of irrigation water must dispose of all his land in excess of 160 acres. The district court dismissed a claim alleging that federal law is ipso facto applicable to such a state project. It is this claim which is on appeal here. We do not reach the merits of the claim since it is our view that plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this action.
The Central Valley Project is a system of dams and canals for water conservation and distribution which was designed during the 1920's and 1930's for irrigation of California's Central Valley. Additional facilities have been constructed since that time. The construction of the project was under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Reclamation. Because the Central Valley Project was financed by federal funds, farmers who obtain water from the project must live on or near the land which is being irrigated and must dispose of all land in excess of 160 acres at a price which assumes the nonavailability of irrigation water from federal sources.
More recently, California has financed and constructed an irrigation system known as the State Water Project. Both the state and federal projects needed a reservoir for water storage in the San Luis area; however, only one reservoir site was available. The San Luis Act (Pub.L. No. 86-488, 74 Stat. 156, June 3, 1960) authorized the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate an agreement with California which would provide for the joint construction and operation of the San Luis Reservoir and related structures. The agreement which was reached did not explicitly provide that federal reclamation law limitations should apply to the state irrigation system receiving water from the San Luis Reservoir. The Department of Interior's Solicitor and the Attorney General concluded that the agreement was consistent with the San Luis Act. As required by the San Luis Act, the agreement was submitted to Congress for approval and was not disapproved within the ninety-day review period provided by the statute.
Plaintiffs-appellants brought this action seeking application of the federal reclamation laws, in particular the 160-acre and residency limitations, 1 to the state irrigation project. One of the appellants' claims, asserting that federal reclamation limitations are applicable to the state project due to the existence of hidden federal operating subsidies, was not dismissed by the district court. For the purposes of this appeal, therefore, it must be assumed that the state service area is operated without cost to the federal government. 2
The district court based its conclusion that plaintiffs have standing on Data Processing v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970). Data Processing set forth two requirements for standing: (1) the action challenged must have caused the plaintiff injury in fact (economic or other); and (2) the interest sought to be protected must arguably be within the zone of interests to be protected by the statute in question. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the Data Processing test, which enlarges the class of injury which may be alleged in support of standing, does not constitute " abandoning the requirement that the party seeking review must himself have suffered an injury." Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 738, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 1368, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972). Our analysis of plaintiffs' standing to sue is structured by the most recent discussions of the Supreme Court in this area in Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization, --- U.S. ----, 96 S.Ct. 1917, 48 L.Ed.2d 450 (1976) and Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). A plaintiff seeking the aid of a federal court must allege facts from which it can be reasonably inferred that plaintiffs' injury resulted in a "concretely demonstrable way" from defendant's action and that a grant by the court of the relief sought will remedy the wrong plaintiffs suffer. Id. at 504, 95 S.Ct. 2197 (1975). See also, Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. 614, 93 S.Ct. 1146, 35 L.Ed.2d 536 (1973). Plaintiffs may not rely on "the remote possibility, unsubstantiated by allegations of fact, that their situation might have been better had respondents acted otherwise, and might improve were the court to afford relief." Warth v. Seldin, supra, 422 U.S. at 507, 95 S.Ct. at 2209; Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organ., supra, --- U.S. at ----, 96 S.Ct. at 1924. Compactly put, the test for standing applicable to this case is that the plaintiffs must have alleged (a) a particularized injury (b) concretely and demonstrably resulting from defendants' action (c) which injury will be redressed by the remedy sought. 3
The plaintiffs in this case all allege to be small family farmers who are subject to the federal 160-acre limitation by virtue of the fact that all of them receive their irrigation water from federal sources. None of the plaintiffs receives any water from the state project even though it is the alleged illegal operation of the state project which is the gravamen of the complaint. Certainly plaintiffs cannot claim standing to attack the operation of one irrigation project on the basis of being the beneficiaries of another project. While we can imagine circumstances under which the illegal operation of one irrigation project might be the cause of a legally cognizable injury to the beneficiaries of some other project, plaintiffs here have not alleged such circumstances. Nor is there anything in the record to indicate that such circumstances exist. To this point plaintiffs have alleged no...
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