Haines v. Fed. Motor Carrier Safety Admin.
| Decision Date | 18 February 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 15–1624.,15–1624. |
| Citation | 814 F.3d 417 |
| Parties | Roger HAINES, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY ADMINISTRATION; Darin Jones ; Anne S. Ferro; T.F. Scott Darling III, Defendants–Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
ON BRIEF:Joni M. Fixel, Fixel & Nyeholt, PLLC, Okemos, Michigan, for Appellant. Derri T. Thomas, United States Attorney's Office, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellees.
Before: SILER, CLAY, and KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff Roger Haines filed suit against Defendants Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (the "FMCSA")—an agency within the United States Department of Transportation ("DOT")—and FMCSA agents T.F. Scott Darling III, Darin Jones, and Anne S. Ferro (collectively, "Defendants"). According to Haines, Defendants' handling of the temporary suspension of his motor carrier operations violated his rights to due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and gave rise to a claim under the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. The district court disagreed, granted Defendants' motion to dismiss, and denied Haines' motion for leave to amend his complaint. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.
The complaint alleges the following. Haines owns and operates a tour bus company known as "Haines Tours." In 2000, he modified the luggage compartment in one of his busses to become a new sleeper area. In designing the sleeper area, Haines took various precautions to insure compliance with FMCSA regulations.1
After an FMCSA compliance review in August 2010, Haines hired an attorney to obtain FMCSA approval for the sleeper area. In a letter dated May 16, 2011, the FMCSA informed Haines that he could use the bus's luggage compartment as a sleeper area without additional approval if he complied with the applicable regulation. See 49 C.F.R. § 393.76.
On May 29, 2011, Haines permitted some of his family members to ride in the sleeper area while the bus was in motion. An unidentified individual saw Haines' family members riding in the converted luggage compartment and notified the authorities.
As a result of this incident, on June 10, 2011, the FMCSA issued an order placing all of Haines' busses, including three busses without sleeper areas, out of service. The out-of-service order also identified Haines Tours as an "imminent hazard" to public safety based on the FMCSA's finding that the "unauthorized transportation of passengers in the cargo area of [Haines Tours'] motorcoaches ... substantially increase[d] the likelihood of serious injury or death if not discontinued immediately." (R. 1–4, Ex. C 1). Haines alleges that as a result of this order, two of his busses without sleeper areas were forced off the road during a trip to Chicago, Illinois, and Haines Tours was required to make alternative arrangements to insure that its customers reached their respective destinations. Haines also alleges that the out-of-service order exceeded the scope of the FMCSA's authority under 49 C.F.R. § 386.72(b)(2) because such orders cannot impose restrictions "beyond that required to abate the hazard."
On June 14, 2011, Haines contacted Defendant Darin Jones, a field administrator for the FMCSA Midwestern Service Center, and informed Jones that he had implemented the corrective measures outlined in the out-of-service order. In an order dated June 15, 2011, Jones rescinded the out-of-service order based on a finding that the "corrective measures implemented by [Haines Tours] ha[d] abated the condition of imminent hazard." . The following day, however, Defendant Anne S. Ferro, the Administrator of the Midwestern Service Center, vacated Jones' rescission order because she, unlike Jones, was not persuaded that Haines' corrective measures had abated the imminent hazard. After receiving Ferro's order, Haines contacted his congressional representatives "to see if anything could be done," retained counsel "to assist in communications with the FMCSA," and hired outside tour bus companies to fulfill his existing contracts. (See id. at ¶¶ 30–31, 33).
In February 2012, the FMCSA rescinded its out-of-service order. Although Haines Tours failed a March 2012 inspection for reasons Haines alleges were "pretext[ual]," following an audit in October 2012, DOT reinstated Haines' certificate of authority in January 2013.
Haines filed the instant lawsuit on November 19, 2014, and filed the Amended Complaint, which is the operative complaint, on January 20, 2015. Haines alleges that the FMCSA's "unjust actions" caused him to suffer injuries in the form of (1) lost revenues, (2) personal humiliation and embarrassment, (3) loss of standing in the business community, (4) anger, outrage, and indignation, and (5) attorney's fees. In an apparent effort to recoup these losses, he brought three causes of action for (1) violation of the APA, (2) a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of his right to procedural due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, and (3) a § 1983 claim for violation of his right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Defendants filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (b)(6) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Haines filed a brief opposing Defendants' motion to dismiss as well as a separate motion for leave to amend the complaint. As part of his motion for leave to amend, Haines sought permission to bring his constitutional claims against Defendants (a federal agency and its agents who were ostensibly acting under color of federal law) under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), rather than § 1983. In opposing Haines' motion for leave to amend, Defendants argued that permitting Haines to file an amended complaint would be futile because (1) Haines' constitutional claims were time-barred by Michigan's three-year statute of limitations, (2) the FMCSA, as a federal agency, could not be sued under a Bivens theory, and (3) there was no basis for recognizing a new Bivens remedy against the FMCSA's agents because Haines had an adequate, alternative remedy available to him through the administrative review process.
The district court granted Defendants' motion to dismiss and denied Haines' motion for leave to amend. The district court dismissed Haines' APA claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on its findings that (1) Haines failed to exhaust his administrative remedies before challenging the FMCSA's actions in federal court; and (2) the out-of-service order was not a "final agency action" within the meaning of the APA. Haines v. Fed. Motor Carrier Safety Ass'n, No. 14–cv–14438, 2015 WL 1912338, at *2–4, *6 (E.D.Mich. Apr. 27, 2015). The district court also dismissed Haines' constitutional claims with prejudice on the grounds that Haines could not state a viable § 1983 claim against Defendants because § 1983 applies to persons acting under color of state law, not persons acting under color of federal law. Id. at *4, *6. Lastly, the district court denied Haines' motion for leave to amend his complaint, concluding that amendment would be futile because Haines' constitutional claims were barred by Michigan's three-year statute of limitations and an amended complaint could not survive a 12(b)(6) motion. Id. at *4–6. The district court reached the latter conclusion based on its finding that "a Bivens remedy [wa]s not available because the APA provide[d] an adequate alternative remedy for unfavorable agency actions." Id. at *5. Haines timely appealed the district court's order and judgment.
We review de novo a district court's decision to dismiss a claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or failure to state a claim. Jama v. Dep't of Homeland Sec., 760 F.3d 490, 494 (6th Cir.2014). Even where the district court relies on erroneous grounds in reaching its decision, we may affirm that decision "on any ground supported by the record." Bangura v. Hansen, 434 F.3d 487, 498 n. 3 (6th Cir.2006) (citing City Mgmt. Corp. v. U.S. Chem. Corp., 43 F.3d 244, 251 (6th Cir.1994) ); see also Apple v. Glenn, 183 F.3d 477, 479 (6th Cir.1999).
As indicated, the district court dismissed Haines' APA claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based, in part, on Haines' failure to exhaust his administrative remedies. Although we find that the district court erred in making this determination, we affirm the dismissal of Haines' APA claim on alternative grounds.
"The APA ‘sets forth the procedures by which federal agencies are accountable to the public and their actions subject to review by the courts.’ " Muniz–Muniz v. U.S. Border Patrol, 741 F.3d 668, 672 (6th Cir.2013) (quoting Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, 796, 112 S.Ct. 2767, 120 L.Ed.2d 636 (1992) ). Importantly, "[t]he APA is not a jurisdiction-conferring statute; it does not directly grant subject matter jurisdiction to the federal courts." Jama, 760 F.3d at 494 (citing Air Courier Conference v. Am. Postal Workers Union, 498 U.S. 517, 523 n. 3, 111 S.Ct. 913, 112 L.Ed.2d 1125 (1991) ; Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 105, 97 S.Ct. 980, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977) ). Instead, "the judicial review provisions of the APA provide a limited cause of action for parties adversely affected by agency action." Jama, 760 F.3d at 494 (citations omitted); see also Md. Dep't of Human Res. v. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 763 F.2d 1441, 1445 n. 1 (D.C.Cir.1985). Thus, "[a]lthough the APA does not directly grant jurisdiction, the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, ‘confer[s] jurisdiction on federal courts to review agency action, regardless of whether the APA of its own force may serve as a jurisdictional predicate.’ " Jama, 760 F.3d...
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