Cruz v. Farquharson

• Decision Date: 10 May 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-2261,00-2261
• Parties: (1st Cir. 2001) MARIA ANTONIA CRUZ, ETC., ET AL., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. STEVEN J. FARQUHARSON, AS DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON DISTRICT OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Defendant, Appellee. Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 530

252 F.3d 530 (1st Cir. 2001)

MARIA ANTONIA CRUZ, ETC., ET AL., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. STEVEN J. FARQUHARSON, AS DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON DISTRICT OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 00-2261

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Heard May 10, 2001

Decided June 12, 2001

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Joseph L. Tauro, U.S. District Judge] Cristobal Bonifaz, with whom John C. Bonifaz and Law Offices of Cristobal Bonifaz were on brief, for appellants.

Papu Sandhu, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Dep't of Justice, with whom Stuart E. Schiffer, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and Emily Anne Radford, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for appellee.

Before Selya and Boudin, Circuit Judges, and Schwarzer,^* Senior District Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This case involves the manner in which the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) processes (or fails to process) petitions by citizens requesting permanent residence in the United States for their alien spouses. These importunings are commonly called "immediate relative" visa petitions (IRV petitions). The pertinent statute is 8 U.S.C. § 1154(a) (1994 & Supp. IV 1998), pursuant to which a United States citizen may file an IRV petition on behalf of an alien spouse to classify the spouse as a person who can apply forthwith for an immigrant visa. Id.; see also id. § 1151(b)(2)(A)(i) (defining "immediate relatives" to include spouses). The law assigns to the Attorney General the duty to decide whether a petition reveals facts sufficient to allow the alien spouse to satisfy the definition of "immediate relative." Id. § 1154(b). After conducting an investigation, "the Attorney General shall, if he determines that the facts stated in the petition are true and that the alien in behalf of whom the petition is made is an immediate relative . . . approve the petition." Id.

Such approval clears the way for the affected alien spouse to seek an adjustment of his or her status to that of a lawful permanent resident of the United States. See id. § 1255(a). To so qualify, the alien spouse must make a four-fold showing: (1) that he or she was lawfully admitted into the United States; (2) that he or she has duly applied for adjustment of status; (3) that he or she is eligible to obtain permanent residence in the United States; and (4) that, as a result of the granting of an IRV petition or otherwise, an immigrant visa is immediately available. See id.; see also Ruckbi v. INS, 159 F.3d 18, 19 (1st Cir. 1998). Because "sham" marriages historically have posed a problem in connection with IRV petitions, the INS may impose certain conditions on approval of adjustment-of-status applications involving recently married alien spouses. See 8 U.S.C. § 1186a(a)(1), (g)(1) (stipulating that if the marriage occurred within twenty-four months next preceding the date of adjustment of status, permanent resident status will be granted provisionally); see also id. § 1186a(c), (d)(2) (describing procedure for converting conditional status to unconditional status once two years have elapsed from date of adjustment).

In this case, four named plaintiffs, all American citizens, filed IRV petitions with the Boston office of the INS on behalf of their alien spouses. The spouses, also named plaintiffs, simultaneously applied for permanent residence. The INS district director temporized, neither granting nor denying any of these requests.

By mid-1999, these filings -- which had been perfected on various dates in 1997 -- still lay fallow. The eight plaintiffs, frustrated by the unexplained delay, sued the district director on August 18, 1999. In their complaint, purportedly filed on behalf of themselves and "[a]ll persons within the jurisdiction of the Boston Office of INS who have [had] adjustment of status applications pending in the Boston Office of INS for more than one year," the plaintiffs prayed, inter alia, for an order requiring the district director to grant or deny residency to the named alien spouses and comparably situated members of the putative class within twelve months of the date on which properly completed IRV petitions and adjustment-of-status applications had been filed.¹ The complaint also alleged that the INS had engaged in a variety of pernicious practices and sought an order enjoining the district director from continuing to conduct his office in that manner. The practices cited by the plaintiffs (which are, at this point, merely allegations) included, inter alia, (i) making status determinations vis-a-vis alien spouses on racially discriminatory bases, and (ii) effectively curtailing legal immigration into the United States by "shelving" adjudication cases.

The complaint brought a swift response. Within twenty-five days of the filing date, the district director granted the residency status sought by one couple and began actively processing the IRV petitions and adjustment-of-status applications of the remaining named plaintiffs. By October 29, 1999 -- roughly ten weeks after suit had been started -- the district director had granted all the named plaintiffs' IRV petitions and had approved permanent resident status for the four alien spouses.

Pointing to these changed circumstances, the district director moved to dismiss the complaint on mootness grounds. The plaintiffs opposed this motion and, on December 1, 1999, moved for class certification. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 23. The district court granted the district director's motion and, accordingly, denied class certification as moot. This appeal ensued.

We need not tarry. The Constitution confines the federal courts' jurisdiction to those claims which embody actual "cases" or "controversies." U.S. Const. art. III, § 2, cl. 1. This requirement must be satisfied at each and every stage of the litigation. Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7 (1998). When a case is moot -- that is, when the issues presented are no longer live or when the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome -- a case or controversy ceases to exist, and dismissal of the action is compulsory. See City of Erie v. Pap's A. M., 529 U.S. 277, 287 (2000); United States Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 395-96 (1980); R.I. Ass'n of Realtors v. Whitehouse, 199 F.3d 26, 34 (1st Cir. 1999).

Here, the named plaintiffs received complete relief from the district director no later than October 29, 1999. By that date, the INS had adjudicated and approved the IRV petitions filed by all four named citizen plaintiffs and the concomitant applications for adjustment of status filed by their alien spouses. From that point forward, there was no longer a live controversy between the plaintiffs and the district director, and the plaintiffs -- having previously received favorable administrative action -- lacked any cognizable stake in the outcome of the proceedings. Thus, the case had become moot. See County of Los Angeles v. Davis, 440 U.S. 625, 631-34 (1979); Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 496-97 (1969); Thomas R.W. v. Mass. Dep't of Educ., 130 F.3d 477, 479 (1st Cir. 1997). Nothing that transpired between October 29, 1999, and June 22, 2000 (the date on which the district court ruled) filled this void: no new plaintiffs tried to intervene, and the named plaintiffs made no effort to amend their complaint to add new parties. Thus, it seems difficult to fault the district court for dismissing the case.

The plaintiffs try. They seek to deflect the force of this reasoning in two ways. We examine their handiwork.

The plaintiffs first argue that a different, more relaxed conception of mootness should apply because this suit was intended all along to be a class action. In maintaining this stance, they rely heavily on the Supreme Court's decision in Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393 (1975). Their reliance is mislaid.

To be sure, the Sosna Court held that even though the named plaintiff's individual claim had become moot after proper certification of a class, the class action itself was not rendered moot. Id. at 400-01. The Court reasoned that when the district court ordered certification, the class acquired a separate legal status that survived the dissipation of the named plaintiff's claim. Id. at 399. Here, however, the district court had not certified a class at the time the named plaintiffs' claims became moot -- indeed, the plaintiffs had not yet moved for class certification at that juncture.

This is a dispositive difference. Despite the fact that a case is brought as a putative class action, it ordinarily must be dismissed as moot if no decision on class certification has occurred by the time that the individual claims of all named plaintiffs have been fully resolved.² See Arnold v Panora, 593 F.2d 161, 164 (1st Cir. 1979); Cicchetti v. Lucey, 514 F.2d 362, 365-66 (1st Cir. 1975); see also Ahmed v. Univ. of Toledo, 822 F.2d 26, 27 (6th Cir. 1987); Tucker v. Phyfer, 819 F.2d 1030, 1033 (11th Cir. 1987); Inmates of Lincoln Intake & Det. Facility v. Boosalis, 705 F.2d 1021, 1023 (8th Cir. 1983).³ Only when a class is certified does the class acquire a legal status independent of the interest asserted by the named plaintiffs -- and only then is the holding in Sosna implicated.

The plaintiffs next seek to avoid the mootness bar by asseverating that the questions presented in their complaint are "capable of repetition, yet evading review." S. Pac. Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 498, 515 (1911). This asseveration fastens upon a recognized, albeit narrow, exception to general principles of mootness. E.g., Caroline T. v. Hudson Sch. Dist., 915 F.2d 752, 757 (1st Cir. 1990). We have warned, however, that "the exception is not a juju, capable of dispelling mootness by mere invocation." Oakville Dev. Corp. v. FDIC, 986 F.2d 611, 615 (1st Cir. 1993). In cases...