Elredge v. Martin Marietta Corp.

• Decision Date: 22 March 2000
• Docket Number: N,No. 99-30035,99-30035
• Citation: 207 F.3d 737
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2000) GEORGE ELDREDGE; JANIE ELDREDGE LANGUIRAND; HARTWELL LANGUIRAND, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MARTIN MARIETTA CORP.; ET AL., Defendants, LUHR BROTHERS, INC.; MARTIN MARIETTA MATERIALS, INC., Defendants-Appellees. GEORGE ELDREDGE; JANIE ELDREDGE LANGUIRAND; HARTWELL LANGUIRAND, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MARTIN MARIETTA CORP.; ET AL., Defendants, LUHR BROTHERS, INC.; MARTIN MARIETTA MATERIALS, INC.; DRAVO BASIC MATERIALS CO., INC., Defendants-Appellees. o. 99-30220
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 737

207 F.3d 737 (5th Cir. 2000)

GEORGE ELDREDGE; JANIE ELDREDGE LANGUIRAND; HARTWELL LANGUIRAND, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MARTIN MARIETTA CORP.; ET AL., Defendants, LUHR BROTHERS, INC.; MARTIN MARIETTA MATERIALS, INC., Defendants-Appellees. GEORGE ELDREDGE; JANIE ELDREDGE LANGUIRAND; HARTWELL LANGUIRAND, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MARTIN MARIETTA CORP.; ET AL., Defendants, LUHR BROTHERS, INC.; MARTIN MARIETTA MATERIALS, INC.; DRAVO BASIC MATERIALS CO., INC., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 99-30035, No. 99-30220

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

March 22, 2000

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court For the Western District of Louisiana. 98-CV-912. Richard T Haik, Sr, US District Judge.

Preston M. Summers (argued), Abbeville, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellants.

Mark Randal Callender (argued), Callender & Gray, Baton Rouge, LA, for Luhr Brothers, Inc.

Allen F. Campbell (argued), Robert Emmett Kerrigan, Jr., Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, New Orleans, LA, for Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.

Joseph Thomas Hamrick, Jr. (argued), James A. Burton, Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, New Orleans,LA, for Dravo Basic Materials Co., Inc.

Before JOLLY and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges, and DOWD,^* District Judge.

DeMOSS, Circuit Judge:

George Eldredge, Janie Eldredge Languirand, and Hartwell Languirand (collectively "Appellants") appeal the district court's orders granting partial summary judgment to Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. ("Martin Marietta"), and Luhr Brothers, Inc. ("Luhr"), and granting summary judgment to Dravo Basic Materials, Inc. ("Dravo"). We affirm the grant of summary judgment to Dravo, but find that the partial summary judgment order as to Martin Marietta and Luhr was not a final judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and, therefore, we dismiss Appellants' appeal of that judgment for lack of appellate jurisdiction.

I.

Appellants jointly own property located on the Vermilion River in Louisiana. They claim that various towboat companies sued herein have trespassed on their land and damaged the trees and soil on their property through repetitive use of the trees located on the property for tying off barges in custody of towboats operated by these companies. According to the deposition testimony of George Eldredge, he knew that barges were being tied off to the land and that his father once complained to the local sheriff in the mid-1960s about this practice. The sheriff, however, took no action, and towboat companies have continued to use the property in this manner over the past few decades. In 1993, Hartwell Languirand posted signs warning against trespassing, contacted the Coast Guard to complain about the towboat companies, and also cut and removed the ropes and cables that those companies had left on the property. The Coast Guard allegedly told Hartwell Languirand that word would be passed around to the various towboat companies regarding Appellants' displeasure with the towboat companies' activities, but barges continued to be tied off to the property.

On April 20, 1998, Appellants filed suit in Louisiana state court seeking damages and permanent injunctive relief against Martin Marietta, Luhr, Vulcan Materials ("Vulcan"), and Ingram Barge Lines, Inc. ("Ingram"). ¹ Ingram removed the suit to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction on May 15, 1998. Appellants later added Dravo as a defendant.

Based on the principle of liberative prescription, Martin Marietta filed a motion for partial summary judgment, which Luhr followed. Despite opposition from Appellants, the district court granted Martin Marietta's and Luhr's motions for partial summary judgment. Subsequent to this ruling, Dravo filed its own motion for summary judgment and incorporated by reference Martin Marietta's arguments. That unopposed motion by Dravo was also granted. After Appellants filed separate notices of appeal, the district court entered judgments pursuant to Rule 54(b).

II.

Before proceeding to the merits of Appellants' appeal, we must first consider whether the district court's rulings were suitable for entry as final judgments under Rule 54(b) and are, consequently, appropriate for appellate review. Rule 54(b) allows a district court "when more than one claim for relief is presented in an action . . . [to] direct the entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims or parties only upon an express determination that there is no just reason for delay and upon an express direction for the entry of judgment." Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b). It reflects a balancing of two policies: avoiding the "danger of hardship or injustice through delay which would be alleviated by immediate appeal" and "avoiding piecemeal appeals." PYCA Indus. v. Harrison County Waste Water Management Dist., 81 F.3d 1412, 1421 (5th Cir. 1996).

To enter a Rule 54(b) final judgment, the district court must have disposed of "one or more . . . claims or parties."² Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b). That requirement is jurisdictional, is reviewed de novo, and may be raised by this court even though the parties may not have challenged it. See Samaad v. City of Dallas, 940 F.2d 925, 930 (5th Cir. 1991). Additionally, we must look to see whether this requirement is met as to each party or claim. See, e.g., In re Southeast Banking Corp., 69 F.3d 1539, 1548-52 (11th Cir. 1995) (finding that a Rule 54(b) final judgment was improperly entered as to certain rulings because they did not dispose of distinct claims, but that it was properly entered as to certain defendants who were completely dismissed).

Because the district court dismissed with prejudice all claims against Dravo, Dravo was no longer a party before that court and the order granting summary judgment is properly on appeal pursuant to Rule 54(b). On the other hand, the ruling as to Martin Marietta and Luhr did not eliminate either as a party because part of Appellants' tort claim, i.e., the non-prescribed portion, remains pending against each of them. Hence, for this Court to have jurisdiction under Rule 54(b), the district court must have resolved a distinct "claim for relief" against each of Martin Marietta and Luhr. The critical issue, then, is whether a statute of limitations ruling that precludes recovery for a certain past time period but allows such recovery for another current time period creates two distinct claims for purposes of Rule 54(b)'s requirement that the district court dispose of one or more claims.

We have never answered this specific question, and no definitive formulation has emanated from the Supreme Court. The Court has recognized that "a complaint asserting only one legal right, even if seeking multiple remedies for the alleged violation of that right, states a single claim for relief." Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 743 n.4, 96 S. Ct. 1202, 47 L. Ed. 2d 435 (1976). And several years ago, it held that separate claims could arise out of the same transaction and occurrence. See Cold Metal Process Co. v. United Eng'g & Foundry Co., 351 U.S. 445, 76 S. Ct. 904, 100 L. Ed. 1311 (1956). But those judicial crumbs have failed to lead the circuit courts to a concensus as to the handling of this confusing area of law.

Instead, various methods to determine what constitutes a "claim for relief" for purposes of Rule 54(b) have percolated amongst the circuits. One approach "focuses upon the possibility of separate recoveries under arguably separate claims." Samaad, 940 F.2d at 931. If the alleged claims for relief do not permit more than one possible recovery, then they are not separately enforceable nor appropriate for Rule 54(b) certification. See Brandt v. Bassett (In re Southeast Banking Corp.), 69 F.3d 1539, 1547 (11th Cir. 1995) (concluding that allegations seeking damages against holding company's directors for failing to consider merger possibilities over several years stated one claim because relief could only be recovered once); Local P-171, Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Thompson Farms Co., 642 F.2d 1065, 1070 (7th Cir. 1981) (Wisdom, J.) ("At a minimum, claims cannot be separate unless separate recovery is possible.").

Another approach "concentrates on the facts underlying the putatively separate claims." Samaad, 940 F.2d at 931. If the facts underlying those claims are different, then those claims may be deemed separate for Rule 54(b) purposes. See Jack Walters & Sons v. Morton Bldg., 737 F.2d 698, 702 (7th Cir. 1984)); see also Purdy Mobile Homes, Inc. v. Champion Home Builders Co., 594 F.2d 1313, 1316 (9th Cir. 1979). "By the same token, if there is a great deal of factual overlap between the decided and the retained claims they are not separate, and appeal must be deferred till the latter are resolved." ³ Jack Walters & Sons, 737 F.2d at 702. A prime basis for the factual approach is "to spare the court of appeals from having to keep relearning the facts of a case on successive appeals." Id.

Finally, at least one circuit has expressed that claims are not distinct when they are "'so closely related that they would fall afoul of the rule against splitting claims if brought separately.'" Tolson v. United States, 235 U.S. App. D.C. 396, 732 F.2d 998, 1001 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (quoting Local P-171, 642 F.2d at 1071).

We have yet to resolve which amongst these methods is the preferable method of discerning what a claim is for purposes of Rule 54(b), and we decline to do so today. Rather, in this unsettled area of the law, we simply note the important cases and competing methods in existence and earmark them as guideposts for future deliberations. We now turn to the case at hand.

In a case analogous to the present situation, the Seventh Circuit utilized a factual approach to review the propriety of a district court's decision to enter a Rule 54(b) final judgment after issuing a statute of limitations ruling. See Minority Police Officers Ass'n v. City of South Bend, 721 ...