Lefrancois v. State of RI

• Decision Date: 15 September 1987
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 87-361 P.
• Citation: 669 F. Supp. 1204
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island
• Parties: Jack LEFRANCOIS d/b/a Blackstone Valley Disposal v. STATE OF RHODE ISLAND and Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation.

669 F. Supp. 1204

Jack LEFRANCOIS d/b/a Blackstone Valley Disposal v. STATE OF RHODE ISLAND and Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation.

Civ. A. No. 87-361 P.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

September 15, 1987.

Howard Croll, Stephen Izzi, Fontaine & Croll, Ltd., Woonsocket, R.I., for plaintiff.

Gary Powers, David Prior, Rhode Island Atty. Gen's. Office, Albert West, Providence, R.I., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

PETTINE, Senior District Judge.

This case presents the question of whether a state may prohibit the disposal of out-of-state waste at a state-subsidized sanitary landfill where no privately owned landfill provides an alternative disposal site for out-of-state waste. Specifically at issue in this case is the constitutional validity of section 23-19-13.1 of the Rhode Island General laws, which imposes criminal sanctions upon any individual found dumping out-of-state waste at the state-subsidized Central Landfill in Johnston, Rhode Island, the sole Rhode Island disposal site for all categories of non-hazardous solid waste. The plaintiff in this action, a commercial handler of solid waste, challenges this statutory provision on the grounds that it violates the Commerce Contract, and Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the Constitution of the United States.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiff, Jack Lefrancois, doing business as Blackstone Valley Disposal ("Blackstone"), is a commercial hauler of refuse, trash and other solid waste. Mr. Lefrancois is a resident of Blackstone, Massachusetts. Blackstone's principal places of business are Blackstone, and Millville, Massachusetts. Blackstone Valley Disposal operates its refuse-hauling business in the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border area around Blackstone, Massachusetts. Blackstone routinely collects waste from both Rhode Island and Massachusetts sources; approximately 20% to 30% of Blackstone's gross revenues derive from its waste-collection activities in Rhode Island.

The defendant, the Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation ("RISWMC") is a legislatively-created public agency formed in 1974 in order to plan, construct, operate and maintain a statewide system of solid waste management facilities and services. Since December 1980, the Solid Waste Management Corporation has owned and operated the Central Landfill in Johnston, Rhode Island; RISWMC purchased the Central Landfill from a private owner-operator. The Central Landfill is currently the largest sanitary landfill in New England and the only sanitary landfill in Rhode Island that accepts all categories of non-hazardous waste. The last privately-owned landfills in Rhode Island closed in 1985 after reaching capacity, although four license applications for private landfills and two applications for resource recovery facilities are currently pending before the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

The Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation purchased the Central Landfill with funds raised through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. In addition to authorizing the sale of the bonds, the State of Rhode Island has subsidized the RISWMC when tipping fees at the Central Landfill have not covered operating costs. Beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1982, the State of Rhode Island has subsidized RISWMC as follows:

                    1982:                     $339,869
                    1983:                     $ 75,000
                    1984:                     $200,000
                    1985:                     $200,000
                

In addition, the Solid Waste Management Corporation owes an outstanding loan to the State of Rhode Island in the amount of $534,000.

On or about September 29, 1986, RISWMC and Blackstone entered into an agreement ("the Agreement") which allowed Blackstone to dispose of its collections at the Central Landfill without regard to the geographic source of the waste, so long as the amount of Massachusetts waste deposited at the landfill did not exceed the amount of Rhode Island waste deposited in Massachusetts. Pursuant to this agreement, Blackstone dumped an average of four hundred tons of solid waste per month at the Central Landfill, enabling Blackstone to maintain a profitable business.

On or about June 29, 1987, the State of Rhode Island enacted legislation entitled: "An Act Relating to the Central Landfill." This act amended Title 23, Chapter 19 of the Rhode Island Gneral Laws (the chapter relating to the solid waste Management Corporation), and in the provision relevant to this controversy, prohibited the disposal of out-of-state waste at the Central Landfill. The amendment states:

(a) No person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of collecting and disposing of solid waste shall deposit solid waste that is generated or collected outside the territorial limits of this state at the central landfill. Each deposit in violation of the provisions of this subsection shall be punishable by imprisonment for up to three (3) years and/or a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5000).

R.I.Gen.Laws section 23-19-13.1 (1987). By letter dated July 1, 1987, the Solid Waste Management Corporation notified Blackstone of the Rhode Island legislature's action and informed the company that RISWMC would refuse to accept any out-of-state waste at the Central Landfill, including the "border waste" that was the subject of the parties' earlier agreement.

On July 2, 1987, the plaintiff filed a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order seeking to restrain the defendants from enforcing the provisions of the Act or instituting proceedings to enforce the Act against the plaintiff pending adjudication of the constitutionality of the statutory amendment. After a hearing on the motion, this Court denied the plaintiff's request for a Temporary Restraining Order. The parties agreed to enter a statement of stipulated facts; this matter is now before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. As there are no material facts in dispute, I may determine which party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

II. THE COMMERCE CLAUSE

A.

The Commerce Clause of the United State Constitution provides that "the Congress shall have power ... to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes ...." U.S. Const. Art. I, section 8. Although "phrased as an affirmative grant of power to Congress," L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law section 6-2 at 320 (1978), the United States Supreme Court has subjected the Commerce Clause to a dual interpretation: "The Commerce Clause has ... been interpreted ... not only as an authorization for congressional action, but also, even in the absence of a conflicting federal statute, as a restriction on permissible state regulation." Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U.S. 322, 326, 99 S.Ct. 1727, 1731, 60 L.Ed.2d 250 (1979) (footnote omitted). This latter interpretation, often referred to as the "dormant" Commerce Clause, see, e.g., White v. Massachusetts Council of Construction Employers, 460 U.S. 204, 213, 103 S.Ct. 1042, 1047, 75 L.Ed. 2d 1 (1983) derives from the view that

our system, fostered by the Commerce Clause, is that every farmer and every craftsman shall be encouraged to produce by the certainty that he will have free access to every market in the Nation, that no home embargoes will withhold his export, and no foreign state will by customs duties or regulations exclude them. Likewise, every consumer may look to the free competition from every producing area in the Nation to protect him from exploitation from any. Such was the vision of the Founders....

H.P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. DuMond, 336 U.S. 525, 539, 69 S.Ct. 657, 665, 93 L.Ed. 865 (1949).

The Supreme Court has developed a two-part dormant commerce clause analysis.

Where the statute regulates even-handedly to effectuate a legitimate local public interest, and its effects on interstate commerce are only incidental, it will be upheld unless the burden imposed on such commerce is clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits. If a legitimate local purpose is found, then the question becomes one of degree. And the extent of the burden that will be tolerated will of course depend on the nature of the local interest involved, and on whether it could be promoted as well with a lesser impact on interstate activities.

Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 142, 90 S.Ct. 844, 847, 25 L.Ed.2d 174 (1970) (citations omitted). In contrast, state statutes and regulations that effect the economic isolation of the state by discriminating against interstate commerce in favor of local interests have been held to be per se unconstitutional.

Where simple economic protectionism is effected by state legislation, a virtually per se rule of invalidity has been erected. The clearest example of such legislation is a law that overtly blocks the flow of interstate commerce at a State's borders.

City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U.S. 617, 624, 98 S.Ct. 2531, 2535, 57 L.Ed. 2d 475 (1978). The plaintiff contends that section 23-19-13.1 of the Rhode Island General Laws is just such a protectionist measure since its practical effect is to erect a complete barrier to the disposal of out-of-state solid waste in Rhode Island.

B.

The plaintiff correctly notes that any discussion of the constitutionality of a state statute that effectively bans the disposal of out-of-state waste must begin with an analysis of City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U.S. 617, 98 S.Ct. 2531, 57 L.Ed.2d 475 (1978). In City of Philadelphia, the United States Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a New Jersey statute that prohibited the importation of most "solid or liquid waste which originated or was collected outside the territorial limits of the State. ..." Id. at 618, 98 S.Ct. at 2532.

In considering the Commerce Clause implications of the New Jersey statute, the Court first rejected the notion that waste is...