International Paper v. Inhabitants of Town of Jay

• Decision Date: 27 April 1990
• Docket Number: Civ. 88-0183-P.
• Citation: 736 F. Supp. 359
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF JAY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

736 F. Supp. 359

INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF JAY, et al., Defendants.

Civ. 88-0183-P.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

April 27, 1990.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William J. Kayatta, Pierce, Atwood, Scribner, Allen, Smith & Lancaster, Portland, Me., for plaintiff.

Gerald F. Petruccelli, Portland, Me., Theodore E. Dinsmoor, Gaston & Snow, Boston, Mass., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

GENE CARTER, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff filed this suit seeking to invalidate and enjoin enforcement of the Jay Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance (Ordinance). Plaintiff contends that the Ordinance: (I) is preempted under the National Labor Relations Act; (II) violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and (III) violates the Maine conflict of interest statute, 30 M.R.S.A. § 2251.¹ Defendants have filed a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings on all counts. Plaintiff objected to Defendants' motion and filed a Cross-Motion for Partial Judgment on the Pleadings on Counts IV through IX. Defendant subsequently filed a Motion to Dismiss for Mootness to which Plaintiff has objected.²

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff makes the following allegations in its Amended Complaint. On June 16, 1987, approximately 1,200 workers who were employed at Plaintiff's plant in Jay, Maine, went on strike. In response, Plaintiff hired replacement workers. The percentage of town voters who were on strike or who have spouses or family members on strike is sufficiently great so that the group can control town policy. The town's legal counsel, at the behest of selectmen who were in the striking union, drafted the Jay Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance, and the town selectmen proposed that it be voted on by the people of Jay. On May 21, 1988, after two public hearings, the town enacted the Ordinance by a referendum vote.

Plaintiff further alleges that the selectmen supported and proposed the Ordinance for their own pecuniary purposes and in order to punish Plaintiff. In particular, Plaintiff alleges that the selectmen hoped to pressure Plaintiff into submitting to worker demands, thereby ending the strike and putting extra money in the pockets of certain selectmen or their spouses. Plaintiff also alleges that the town as a whole, as well as the other Defendants, was similarly motivated.

After the strike was resolved, and after this suit was commenced, a referendum to repeal the environmental Ordinance was put to the voters of Jay. The town voted not to repeal the Ordinance. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss for Mootness is based on this second vote.

DISCUSSION

Counts I, II, and III of Plaintiff's Amended Complaint rest on Plaintiff's assertions of improper motive. For the purposes of Defendants' Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, the Court must take the factual allegations contained in Plaintiff's Amended Complaint as true and must assess Plaintiff's legal claims in the light most favorable to Plaintiff. Lovell v. One Bancorp, 690 F.Supp. 1090, 1096 (D.Me. 1988). To grant judgment on the pleadings, the Court must be certain that the nonmoving party is not entitled to relief under any set of facts that could be proved in support of its claim. Id.

Counts I, II, and III of the Amended Complaint focus solely on the actions taken by the town's selectmen. Plaintiff does not appear to argue, nor does the Court find support for, the proposition that the Court may invalidate an ordinance because the general public who voted for the Ordinance did so for improper reasons.³ Plaintiff argues, and the Court concludes, therefore, that Counts I, II, and III assert that the Court ought to strike down the Ordinance because of the selectmen's actions in helping to pass the Ordinance.⁴

It is, therefore, important to define the selectmen's role in passing the Ordinance. Plaintiff states that the selectmen directed the town attorney to draft environmental legislation in order to harm Plaintiff. After a public hearing on the proposed Ordinance, the selectmen moved to have the Ordinance put to a referendum vote. The motion was made and seconded by selectmen, who were members of the striking union. Subsequent to that motion, and prior to the referendum, there was another public hearing on the proposed Ordinance. On May 21, 1988, the voters of the town of Jay voted to enact the Ordinance. Later, after the union had called off the strike, the town voted not to repeal the Ordinance.

The Court, while viewing the facts provided in Plaintiff's Amended Complaint as true, notes that the selectmen did not pass the law. Their role, although important, was limited to commissioning the drafting of the Ordinance and proposing the Ordinance. Counts I, II, and III, therefore, seek to invalidate the Ordinance solely based on the selectmen's role in drafting and proposing the Ordinance and must be viewed in that context. Thus, at issue is an Ordinance which facially protects the health and welfare of the town's citizens and which was put to a general vote on two occasions.

Constitutional Claims

In Count II of its Amended Complaint, Plaintiff maintains, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that Defendants, acting under color of state law, have deprived Plaintiff of its equal protection and due process rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. For the reasons set out below, the Court finds that the Ordinance is rationally related to legitimate municipal ends and, therefore, is not constitutionally infirm.

The proper deference owed to the democratic process requires courts to presume legislation is valid if its means are rationally related to a legitimate state interest. Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. 473 U.S. 432, 440, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 3254, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985). Courts must grant wide latitude when social or economic legislation is at issue. Id. This level of deference is inapplicable, however, when the legislation contains a suspect classification or when the legislation deprives individuals of fundamental rights. Id. (suspect classification requires strict scrutiny analysis); Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 155, 93 S.Ct. 705, 727, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973) (strict scrutiny applies to fundamental rights). Courts analyze with heightened scrutiny legislation that contains a suspect classification or that impinges on fundamental rights, requiring that the legislation provide the least restrictive means needed to support a compelling state interest. See, e.g., Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. 473 U.S. 432, 440, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 3254, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985); Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 155, 93 S.Ct. 705, 727, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973).

Plaintiff does not argue that the Jay Ordinance entails improper classifications or that Plaintiff is part of a suspect class. Nor does Plaintiff maintain that the Ordinance deprives it of any of the fundamental rights recognized by the Supreme Court. Thus, to determine the constitutionality of the Ordinance, the Court must either apply the rationality test or create a new fundamental right. Because the Court finds no grounds for the creation of such a new right in this suit, the Ordinance must be found valid if it is rationally related to a legitimate municipal or public end.

The Court finds that the Ordinance is clearly rational and that its means are logically related to a legitimate end. The Ordinance's stated purpose is to protect "the public health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the Town of Jay and for protecting and enhancing the Town of Jay's environment." Jay Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance § 1-102. The Ordinance provides rules, regulations, and standards that do, indeed, set about the business of protecting the town's environment. Plaintiff is not singled out. Plaintiff has not alleged that the means by which the Ordinance attempts to protect the environment violates its due process or equal protection rights. The Court holds that the Ordinance provides a rational means to protect the environment and, therefore, does not violate either Plaintiff's equal protection or due process rights.

Plaintiff argues, however, that the Court must strike down the Ordinance because of the illicit motives of the selectmen in commissioning the drafting of the Ordinance and proposing it. The Court holds that proper review of the Ordinance entails that the Court focus on the Ordinance itself. United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 383, 88 S.Ct. 1673, 1682, 20 L.Ed.2d 672 (1968); Fraternal Order of Police Hobart Lodge No. 121 v. City of Hobart, 864 F.2d 551 (7th Cir.1988). The Supreme Court in O'Brien noted that courts "will not strike down an otherwise constitutional statute on the basis of an alleged illicit legislative motive." O'Brien, 391 U.S. at 383, 88 S.Ct. at 1682. The Court limits the potential scope of analysis out of respect for the democratic political process and because of the inherent difficulty of determining the motives of a collective body. Fraternal Order of Police Hobart Lodge No. 121, 864 F.2d at 554.

Confining analysis to the Ordinance is particularly appropriate in this suit both because of the selectmen's nondecisive role in its enactment and because it was, in fact, enacted by a vote of the populace. The referendum, referred to as "the people's veto" in the Maine Constitution (Article IV, Part Third § 21), serves as a political check on possible Selectman bias and, therefore, further limits the need for judicial scrutiny of illicit personal motives of municipal officers.

In certain limited situations, however, courts have looked to legislators' motives. In general, court forays into legislative motive have been confined to laws that infringe upon fundamental rights or that discriminate on invidious grounds. See e.g. Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 105 S.Ct. 2479, 86 L.Ed.2d 29 (1985) (Establishment Clause); Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S....