Fields v. Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority

• Decision Date: 18 February 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-3118,91-3118
• Citation: 953 F.2d 1299
• Parties: Jack E. FIELDS, Mary S. Fields, Martin Amundson, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SARASOTA MANATEE AIRPORT AUTHORITY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1299

953 F.2d 1299

Jack E. FIELDS, Mary S. Fields, Martin Amundson, et al Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SARASOTA MANATEE AIRPORT AUTHORITY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 91-3118.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Feb. 18, 1992.

S.W. Moore, Alan E. DeSerio, Brigham, Moore, Gaylord, Wilson, Ulmer, Schuster & Sachs, Tampa, Fla., and Gideon Kanner, Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants.

A. Lamar Matthews, Jr., Steven D. Hutton, Matthews, Hutton & Eastmore, P.A., Sarasota, Fla., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before JOHNSON ^*, CLARKE ^* and PECK ^**, Senior Circuit Judges.

JOHNSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

This case arises on appeal following the district court's granting summary judgment to appellee Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority based on the application of res judicata and collateral estoppel principles. After a careful review, we conclude that the district court failed to analyze properly this issue. The appellants could have avoided the operation of res judicata and collateral estoppel in this case. However, because the appellants have failed to avail themselves of the procedures necessary for the preservation of their federal law takings claim, we affirm the lower court's entry of summary judgment in this case.

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

A. Background Facts

The appellants ("homeowners") are a group of homeowners who reside near the Tampa airport. Since the mid-1970s, large commercial airliners have flown over the homeowners' properties at low altitudes during takeoffs and landings. The resulting noise and pollution have depressed the values of their homes. Although the homeowners' properties have increased in value over the years, the rate of this increase has been significantly less than in comparable Sarasota neighborhoods that are not adjacent to the metropolitan airport.

B. Procedural History

In 1984, the homeowners first brought suit in the Manatee County Circuit Court. In their second amended complaint, the homeowners raised Florida state law issues regarding inverse condemnation proceedings for an avigational right of way. Homeowners did not raise claims under the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution in their state court complaint, nor did homeowners inform the state court that they intended to pursue any potential federal claims in federal court if they failed to obtain satisfactory compensation in state court. The Manatee County trial court held that the homeowners were not entitled to compensation for the overflights under Florida law. The Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's holding. Fields v. Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority, 512 So.2d 961, 965 (Fla. 2d Dist.Ct.App.1987), rev. denied, 520 So.2d 584 (Fla.1988). On May 17, 1989, homeowners filed suit in federal district court under section 1983 of Title 42, alleging that the overflights constituted a taking of their property by the airport authority without just compensation. On January 14, 1991, in the ruling presented for review, the district court granted the airport authority's motion for summary judgment. Fields v. Sarasota-Manatee Airport Auth., 755 F.Supp. 377, 382 (M.D.Fla.1991). The district court held that, pursuant to Florida law on res judicata, the homeowners' federal law claims were barred because of the prior state court action. Id. at 380-81.

C. Standard of Review

The district court's legal conclusion that Florida res judicata principles preclude the homeowners' federal takings claim under section 1983 is subject to plenary review. Adams v. Sewell, 946 F.2d 757, 762 (11th Cir.1991).

II. QUESTION PRESENTED

This Court must decide whether the district court erred in concluding that Florida collateral estoppel and res judicata principles precluded the federal courts from hearing the homeowners' federal law takings claim.

III. ANALYSIS

This case presents a jurisdictional problem created by the interplay between 28 U.S.C.A. § 1738 ¹ and the Supreme Court's holding in Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnston City, 473 U.S. 172, 105 S.Ct. 3108, 87 L.Ed.2d 126 (1985) (Williamson County ). On the one hand, Williamson County requires potential federal court plaintiffs to pursue any available state court remedies that might lead to just compensation before bringing suit in federal court under section 1983 for claims arising under the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments for the taking of property without just compensation. Id. at 194, 105 S.Ct. at 3120. On the other hand, if a litigant brings a takings claim under the relevant state procedure, he runs the risk of being barred from returning to federal court; most state courts recognize res judicata and collateral estoppel doctrines that would require a state court litigant to raise his federal constitutional claims with the state claims, on pain of merger and bar of such federal claims in any attempted future proceeding. Thus, when a would-be federal court litigant ventures to state court to exhaust any potential avenues of obtaining compensation, in order to establish that a taking "without just compensation" has actually occurred as required by Williamson County, he finds himself forced to raise the federal law takings claim even though he would prefer to reserve the federal claim for resolution in a section 1983 suit brought in federal court.

This Circuit has already resolved this dilemma. See infra discussion at 1305-06. In Jennings v. Caddo Parish School Bd., 531 F.2d 1331 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 897, 97 S.Ct. 260, 50 L.Ed.2d 180 (1976), the Court held that one need only "reserve her constitutional claims for subsequent litigation in federal court" by "making on the state record a reservation as to the disposition of the entire case by the state courts" to preserve access to a federal forum. Id. at 1332. The application of Jennings to the present dispute provides the central issue in this appeal.

A. Federal Takings Claims May be Reserved for a Federal Forum

The Williamson County Court held that if state procedures exist which might provide compensation for an alleged taking of property without just compensation, then a would-be section 1983 litigant could not yet claim that he had been denied "just compensation until he exhausted any such avenues of relief." Id. at 186, 194-97, 105 S.Ct. at 3120-22. As the Court explained, "[i]f the government has provided an adequate process for obtaining compensation, and if resort to that process 'yield[s] just compensation,' then the property owner 'has no claim against the Government' for a taking." Id. at 194-95, 105 S.Ct. at 3121. Thus, a takings claim is not ripe until all avenues of compensation at the state level have been exhausted. Id. at 194-95, 105 S.Ct. at 3121. However, the Williamson County Court failed to address the question of whether the exhaustion of potential state remedies would also require plaintiffs with takings clause claims to litigate their federal takings clause claims in state court.

At first blush, the case law suggests that all takings claims (both federal and state) must be brought in a single state court action concurrently with any state claims which might lead to obtaining "just compensation." The Supreme Court has held that pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 1738, traditional res judicata and collateral estoppel principles apply to section 1983 suits. Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101, 103-04, 101 S.Ct. 411, 419, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). Thus, if a state court litigant raises his federal claims in state court, he may not relitigate them in federal court in a section 1983 action. Id. From this premise, it would seem to follow that if the litigant failed to raise his federal constitutional claims in the state court proceeding, res judicata merger and bar principles would prevent him from raising them for the first time in federal court. However, the Allen court declined to make a definitive ruling on this issue. Id. at 94 n. 5, 101 S.Ct. at 415 n. 5.

In Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Bd. of Education, 465 U.S. 75, 104 S.Ct. 892, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984) (Migra ), the Supreme Court took up the issue left undecided in Allen; to wit, whether section 1738 would preclude the litigation of federal law claims in federal court if the would-be federal court litigant first brought a state law action in state court and that action, under the merger and bar rules of the state of the issuing court, would preclude the subsequent filing of the federal claim in that state's courts. The Migra Court held that state law merger and bar rules preclude a section 1983 suit if (1) the would-be federal court litigant voluntarily filed the state court action in state court, and (2) the would-be federal court litigant could have raised his federal law issues in the state court complaint. Migra, 465 U.S. at 84-85, 104 S.Ct. at 898. The Migra Court observed that "[s]ection 1983 ... does not override state preclusion law and guarantee petitioner a right to proceed to judgment in state court on her state claims and then turn to federal court for adjudication of her federal claims." Id. at 85, 104 S.Ct. at 898.

Thus, a straightforward application of Allen and Migra seems to preclude the action at issue in the case at bar. ² However, the Migra Court cautioned that its holding was based on the voluntary nature of the state court action directly at issue; Migra voluntarily filed his first action in state court, even though he could have first filed a section 1983 action in federal court. Id. at 85 n. 7, 104 S.Ct. at 898 n. 7. Justice Blackmun, writing for a majority of the Court, carefully distinguished the situation presented when a federal court litigant is involuntarily forced into state courts. Id. Moreover, the Migra court expressly referred to England v. Louisiana State Bd. of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11...