Eckles v. City of Corydon

• Decision Date: 03 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2947.,02-2947.
• Citation: 341 F.3d 762
• Parties: David ECKLES, Appellant, v. CITY OF CORYDON; Wayne County; David Clayton; Richard Couchman; Maurice Auxier; Gene Gibbs; Paul Overton; Kay Middlebrook, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

341 F.3d 762

David ECKLES, Appellant, v. CITY OF CORYDON; Wayne County; David Clayton; Richard Couchman; Maurice Auxier; Gene Gibbs; Paul Overton; Kay Middlebrook, Appellees.

No. 02-2947.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: May 12, 2003.

Filed: September 3, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas P. Graves, argued, Des Moines, IA, for appellant.

Bruce B. Green, argued, Council Bluffs, IA, for appellee.

Before BOWMAN¹, HEANEY and BYE, Circuit Judges.

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

David Eckles sued the City of Corydon, Iowa (City), Wayne County, Iowa (County), and various City and County officials alleging constitutional claims under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause, and a state law claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. These charges relate to property value assessments of Eckles's residence and efforts by the City and County to force Eckles to remove signs he painted and posted on his property. The district court² granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts, and Eckles appeals. We reverse with regard to the First Amendment claim against the City defendants and affirm the district court in all other respects.

BACKGROUND

David Eckles owns real property (including a house) in Corydon, a city located in Wayne County, Iowa. He purchased the property in 1987 for the sum of $14,000. Eckles's companion lived in the house until his death in 1993. Eckles moved in shortly thereafter. In 1995, the assessed value of the residence was $21,591. Around this time Eckles began renovating the house. The assessed value of the property increased during the next several years, and by 1999, it had risen to $98,302.00. Eckles appealed the 1999 valuation, alleging the property had been wrongfully overvalued due to his perceived homosexuality. The appeal hearing was scheduled for a date when Eckles would be out of town and unable to attend. The Wayne County Board of Review (Board of Review) denied Eckles's request to reschedule the hearing. As a result, Eckles's attorney represented him at the hearing. The Board of Review upheld the assessment without viewing the property. In June 1999, Eckles appealed the Board of Review's decision to the Iowa state court for Wayne County. In October 1999, while the appeal was pending, the State of Iowa issued a State Equalization Order for increases in the assessed value of all residential property in Wayne County. Accordingly, the Wayne County Assessor, Kay Middlebrook, increased the assessed value of Eckles's property to $107,150.

In July 2000, Eckles posted a large sign on his house and other signs on his property. The signs expressed Eckles's dissatisfaction with the valuation of his home, combined religious and political statements, and criticized officials of both the City and the County.³ On August 2, 2000 Eckles's attorney received a letter from an attorney representing the Board of Review stating:

As I am sure you are aware, your client has erected three large signs on his property relating to the assessment of his property, and the equity of property taxes in general. Please note that his signs appear to be in violation of the zoning ordinance of the City of Corydon and Iowa Code § 306C.

The Corydon Zoning Ordinance governing signs, § 16.070, clearly prohibits signs in residential districts except for those that fall into the enumerated exceptions, which your client's signs clearly do not. In addition, on information and belief, your client has not obtained the required permit from the Department of Transportation as mandated by Iowa Code § 306C.18, which regulates billboards erected adjacent to Iowa highways (Mr. Eckles' residence is adjacent to Iowa Highway 14).

Since your client's signs fail to comply with the Corydon Zoning Ordinances as well as the permit requirements of the Iowa Department of Transportation, you may want to advise Mr. Eckles to remove these signs as soon as possible. Failure to remove these signs could result in action from both the City of Corydon and the Iowa department of Transportation.

(Appellant's App. at 256.)

In response to this letter, Eckles painted at least two additional signs on his property. On August 10, 2000, he replied, via letter, to the law firm representing the Board of Review, reiterating his belief that his property was wrongfully over-valued and the City and County officials were corrupt.

On August 14, 2000, the firm representing the Board of Review sent Eckles's attorney another letter, opining that the signs were a public nuisance and their messages libelous. The letter stated that if the signs were not removed and their messages publicly retracted, the firm would advise County officials to institute private actions against Eckles.

Shortly thereafter, Eckles dropped his pending appeal of the 1999 property value assessment. He then removed his deck, garage, sunroom, and other improvements he had made to the property, and painted five additional signs on or around the house.⁴

On October 18, 2000, the City sent Eckles a notice to abate nuisance, requiring Eckles to remove all refuse from his residential property, as well as "all signs, lettering, statements, verses, and objects whatsoever that refer to actions taken by state, county, and city officials in the legally constituted performance of their duties." (Appellant's App. at 260.) The notice stated that if Eckles did not adhere to the notice or request a hearing within ten days, the City would have the items removed and charge Eckles with the cost of removal.

Eckles then filed a complaint in federal district court for damages, injunctive relief, and declaratory relief against the City, the County, David Clayton,⁵ Richard Couchman,⁶ Maurice Auxier,⁷ Gene Gibbs,⁸ Paul Overton,⁹ and Kay Middlebrook.¹⁰ The complaint alleged: 1) First Amendment violations by the City and Mayor Clayton, 2) First Amendment violations by the County, 3) Equal Protection violations by Couchman, Auxier, Gibbs, Overton, and Middlebrook; and 4) intentional infliction of emotional distress by Couchman, Auxier, Gibbs, and Overton.

The City assured Eckles that it would not seek to abate the nuisance during the pendency of the federal suit. On May 23, 2002, the City revoked the October 18, 2000, notice and issued a revised notice. The revised notice stated that the City, through Mayor Clayton, will consider "Mr. Eckles' statements to be a nuisance only insofar as those statements are objectively false. In particular, the Mayor finds that said statements constitute a nuisance insofar as they falsely suggest that any state, county, and city official, including without limitation the County Assessor, has violated any law." (Appellant's App. at 300.) The letter that accompanied the revocation of notice to abate and the revised notice requested that Eckles dismiss his suit against the City defendants. The letter also stated that the City would enforce the notice but agreed to abstain from enforcement in part if Eckles asserted that it violated his First Amendment rights.¹¹ (Appellant's App. at 301.)

The district court granted summary judgment to all of the defendants, finding that Eckles failed to allege a threat of imminent harm sufficient to establish standing. We hold that Eckles has standing in his suit against the City and Clayton, but not against the other defendants.

ANALYSIS

I. Standard of Review

We review de novo the district court's grant of summary judgment. Harmon v. City of Kansas City, Mo., 197 F.3d 321, 327 (8th Cir.1999). Summary judgment is warranted when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. In analyzing whether summary judgment is appropriate, we consider the facts in the "light most favorable to [the non-moving party] and giving [that party] the benefit of all reasonable inferences supported by the record." Meriwether v. Caraustar Packaging Co., 326 F.3d 990, 992-93 (8th Cir.2003).

II. First Amendment Claims

The district court held that Eckles suffered no injury-in-fact and therefore lacked constitutional standing to pursue these claims in federal court. Article III, § 2, of the United States Constitution limits federal jurisdiction to actual cases and controversies. Steger v. Franco, Inc., 228 F.3d 889, 892 (8th Cir.2000). Standing is the "threshold question" in determining whether a federal court may hear a case. Id.

[T]o satisfy Article III's standing requirements, a plaintiff must show (1) it has suffered an "injury in fact" that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.

Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-81, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000).

This case turns on whether Eckles has suffered an injury-in-fact. "The plaintiff must show that he or she `sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury as the result of the challenged... conduct and [that] the injury or threat of injury [is] both real and immediate....'" Steger, 228 F.3d at 892 (alteration in original) (quoting City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 102, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983)). In order to survive summary judgment, the plaintiff must make a "factual showing of perceptible harm." Lujan, 504 U.S. at 566, 112 S.Ct. 2130.

Regarding charges that Eckles's constitutional rights were violated, he "must present more than `(a)llegations' of a subjective `chill'. There must be a `claim of specific present objective harm or a threat of specific future harm.'" Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809, 816-17, 95 S.Ct. 2222, 44 L.Ed.2d 600, (1975) (finding the defendant had standing to challenge constitutionality of statute as over-broad after being...