Campbell v. Pmi Food Equipment Group, Inc.

• Decision Date: 14 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-4483.,05-4483.
• Citation: 509 F.3d 776
• Parties: Douglas CAMPBELL et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PMI FOOD EQUIPMENT GROUP, INC. et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

509 F.3d 776

Douglas CAMPBELL et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PMI FOOD EQUIPMENT GROUP, INC. et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-4483.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: October 31, 2007.

Decided and Filed: December 14, 2007.

ARGUED: Dwight D. Brannon, Brannon & Associates, Dayton, Ohio, for Appellants. Teresa D. Jones, Thompson Hine, Dayton, Ohio, Brandi L. Dorgan, Isaac, Brant, Ledman & Teetor, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Dwight D. Brannon, Matthew C. Schultz, Brannon & Associates, Dayton, Ohio, for Appellants. Brandi L. Dorgan, Steven G. LaForge, Isaac, Brant, Ledman & Teetor, Columbus, Ohio, Teresa D. Jones, Thompson Hine, Dayton, Ohio, Stacy M. Wall, City of Piqua Law Director, Piqua, Ohio, William J. Cole, Office of the Attorney General of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellees.

Before: DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; EDMUNDS, District Judge.^*

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

PMI Food Equipment Group, Inc. closed its plant in Dayton, Ohio in 1995 and moved the operation to Piqua, Ohio after signing a tax-abatement agreement with the City of Piqua, Miami County, and the state of Ohio that resulted in favorable tax treatment for 10 years. In the process of closing its Dayton plant, PMI terminated all of the 66 hourly employees who worked there. The hourly workers and their spouses (collectively referred to as the "Workers") sued PMI, Piqua, Miami County, the state of Ohio, and various other parties, asserting 33 causes of action arising under various state and federal laws in connection with the tax abatement, the closing of the Dayton plant, and PMI's termination of its hourly workers. All but two of the Workers' claims were dismissed by the district court, and the remaining two claims were resolved by the parties. The Workers timely filed this appeal. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

PMI operated a food-equipment parts and repair facility in Dayton (the Dayton Plant). In 1994, PMI decided to close the Dayton Plant due to the facility's age and inefficient operation. PMI applied to the City of Piqua in December of the same year for a tax-abatement agreement (the Agreement) in the Miami County enterprise zone. The Miami County Board of Commissioners (Miami County) had created the enterprise zone in Piqua to attract new business operations. Donald E. Jakeway, who was the Director of the Ohio Department of Development (ODD), was responsible for administering tax-abatement programs, including the one at issue.

The terms of the Agreement called for PMI to open a plant in Piqua (the Piqua Plant) in exchange for various tax breaks, including a 50% tax abatement until 2004 on all personal property used for business purposes in the Piqua Plant and a 50% tax abatement on any new real property added to the plant until 2005. During the negotiations over the Agreement, the Workers allege that PMI informed Piqua and Miami County officials that it was considering moving its plant to Kentucky, where the company had other operations, in the event that PMI did not receive the tax abatements from Piqua. They also claim that PMI in fact had no plans at the time to move to Kentucky. The Agreement was approved by the Piqua City Commission, Miami County, the state of Ohio, and Jakeway on January 26, 1995.

At the time that PMI closed the Dayton Plant, the company employed 98 people at that location, consisting of 32 salaried employees and 66 hourly employees. The hourly employees were covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between PMI and the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine, and Furniture Workers, AFL-CIO (the Union). According to the Workers' Third Amended Complaint (the Amended Complaint), the CBA was scheduled to expire in June of 1996. The CBA contained no provision requiring PMI to keep the Dayton Plant open. PMI planned to employ a staff of 77 at the Piqua Plant to fill 32 salaried and 45 hourly positions.

PMI informed the Dayton Plant's hourly employees in December of 1994 of the planned closure and their pending termination. The Workers allege that PMI initially told them that they would be laid off a few at a time, "first by handicap, then by seniority." On July 18, 1995, PMI informed them that they were all to be terminated the following Friday, July 26. Three days later, on July 21, PMI closed the Dayton Plant and all of the hourly employees were terminated.

All of the salaried employees from the Dayton Plant were retained to work at the Piqua Plant, but none of the hourly employees were allowed to keep their jobs. PMI filled the 45 hourly positions with individuals who were employed by a temporary employment agency. The Workers allege that, of the 66 hourly employees who were terminated, 51 were age 40 or over and that the average age of the hourly employees was 52. They also allege that the average age of the temporary Workers hired to replace them was 34.

B. Procedural history

In May of 1995, the Workers filed their initial complaint in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas in Dayton. PMI, Piqua, Miami County, the state of Ohio, Jakeway, the City of Dayton, Dayton City Schools, and ODD were named as defendants. All of the defendants, except the Dayton City Schools and ODD, are appellees in this appeal. The case was removed to federal court in June of 1995. In October of the same year, the Workers filed their Amended Complaint, which set forth 33 causes of action. Shortly thereafter, the defendants filed motions to dismiss.

The district court issued an order in September of 1996 that granted in part and denied in part the defendants' motions to dismiss, and stated that its supporting opinion would be forthcoming. Nine years later, in February of 2005, the district court finally issued its opinion. It granted the motions to dismiss in their entirety as to the state of Ohio, Jakeway, and Miami County, and also granted the motions to dismiss with respect to all but two of the Workers' claims against the remaining defendants. (Both of the other claims were later resolved by the parties.) The Workers timely appealed the district court's judgment, limiting the issues on appeal to 8 of the 33 alleged causes of action.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of review

We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Marks v. Newcourt Credit Group, Inc., 342 F.3d 444, 451 (6th Cir.2003). In reviewing a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right of relief above the speculative level, ... on the assumption that all the allegations are true (even if doubtful in fact)." NicSand, Inc. v. 3M Co., 507 F.3d 442, 461 (6th Cir.2007) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). We need not, however, accept as true legal conclusions or unwarranted factual inferences. Gregory v. Shelby County, 220 F.3d 433, 446 (6th Cir.2000).

B. Constitutional claims

In their Amended Complaint, the Workers requested that the district court declare the Agreement "null and void" because it allegedly violated their due process and equal protection rights under both the U.S. Constitution and the Ohio Constitution. The court declined to consider the Workers' request, however, concluding that the issue was moot because the Agreement had already expired. On appeal, the Workers argue that the district court erred in dismissing their constitutional claims for mootness, and they also assert for the first time that the Agreement violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. But the Workers' belated Commerce Clause argument, just like their other constitutional claims that were timely raised, is subject to the mootness doctrine.

We have "no authority to render a decision upon moot questions or to declare rules of law that cannot affect the matter at issue." Cleveland Branch, NAACP v. City of Parma, 263 F.3d 513, 530 (6th Cir.2001). A case is moot when "the issues presented are no longer `live' or parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." Id. (quoting County of Los Angeles v. Davis, 440 U.S. 625, 631, 99 S.Ct. 1379, 59 L.Ed.2d 642 (1979)). That is, "a case becomes moot only when subsequent events make it absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior cannot reasonably be expected to recur and interim relief or events have completely and irrevocably eradicated the effects of the alleged violation." Id. (quotation marks omitted). An otherwise moot claim will not be dismissed, however, where it is "capable of repetition, yet evading review," such that "(1) the challenged action was in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there was a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party would be subject to the same action again." Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 482, 102 S.Ct. 1181, 71 L.Ed.2d 353 (1982).

In considering the potential mootness of a claim for declaratory relief, this court has explained that "the question is whether the facts alleged, under all the circumstances, show that there is a substantial controversy ... of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment." Coal. for Gov't Procurement v. Fed. Prison Indus., 365 F.3d 435, 459 (6th Cir.2004) (quoting Super Tire Eng'g Co. v. McCorkle, 416 U.S. 115, 122, 94 S.Ct. 1694, 40 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974) (quotation marks omitted)).

The Workers argue that the district court's decision is "fundamentally unjust" because the issue would not have been moot if the district court had rendered its decision in a timely manner. Although they justifiably lament the district court's inordinate and inexplicable nine-year delay in deciding the defendants' motions to dismiss, they do not dispute that the Agreement expired in 2...