Lewis v. Cleveland Mun. Airport Authority
| Decision Date | 11 September 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. E2007-00931-COA-R3-CV.,E2007-00931-COA-R3-CV. |
| Parties | Frankie LEWIS, et al. v. CLEVELAND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY, et al. |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Appeals |
Ronald D. Wells and Stacy Lynn Archer, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Cleveland Municipal Airport Authority.
Robert S. Thompson, Cleveland, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Bradley County Commission.
D. MICHAEL SWINEY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which HERSCHEL P. FRANKS, P.J., and CHARLES D. SUSANO, JR., J., joined.
This lawsuit challenges actions by the Cleveland Municipal Airport Authority (the "Airport Authority") and the Bradley County Commission (the "Commission") involving the rezoning by the Commission of certain property located in Bradley County from Forestry Agricultural Residential to Special Impact Industrial. The Airport Authority intends to relocate the Cleveland Municipal Airport to the rezoned property. Frankie Lewis originally filed this lawsuit and Herbert Haney was added later as a plaintiff. As pertinent to this appeal, the Trial Court determined that Lewis lacked taxpayer standing to bring this lawsuit against the Airport Authority and granted the Airport Authority's motion to dismiss. Lewis appeals the dismissal of his lawsuit against the Airport Authority. As to the Commission, both plaintiffs allege statutory and procedural violations surrounding notice of the requested rezoning and the conduct of the Commission in eventually granting the request for rezoning. The Trial Court granted the Commission's motion for summary judgment after concluding that there were no genuine issues of material fact and the Commission was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Both Lewis and Haney appeal that summary judgment. We conclude that the Trial Court did not err in granting the Airport Authority's motion to dismiss and the Commission's motion for summary judgment. The judgment of the Trial Court is, therefore, affirmed.
This appeal involves a challenge to the relocation of the municipal airport in Cleveland, Tennessee. On October 19, 2006, Plaintiff Lewis filed a "Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief" against the Airport Authority and the Commission. According to the petition, as amended:
The Airport Authority is attempting to relocate the Cleveland Municipal Airport from the current location within the Cleveland city limits (Hardwick Field) to a new location on Michigan Avenue Road, Dry Valley Road and Tasso Road in Bradley County and outside the Cleveland city limits (the "Tasso Site"). The proposed new location must be rezoned from Forestry Agricultural Residential District ("FAR") to Special Impact Industrial District ("I-2") for use as an airport.
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Plaintiff will be adversely affected by the rezoning of the Tasso Site from Forestry Agricultural Residential District ("FAR") to Special Impact Industrial District ("I-2") for use as an airport. He is filing this lawsuit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, that is, homeowners and residents adjacent to or in the immediate vicinity of the Tasso Site who will be damaged by the construction and operation of an airport, including plane noise pollution, increased traffic congestion, depressed property value and loss of the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their homes and the additional tax burden that will be imposed on the citizens of Bradley County, the State of Tennessee, and the United States government.
Plaintiff and others have been denied due process by failure of the Airport Authority to follow statutory procedure, rules and regulations on their selection of the Tasso Site for a new municipal airport and by failure of the Bradley County Commission to follow statutory requirements and mandatory procedural prerequisites necessary to change zoning of the Tasso Site.... Plaintiff avers he and other citizens have been denied the opportunity to fairly present their objections to rezoning of the Tasso Site for an airport.
Plaintiff Lewis also claimed that the Airport Authority entered into invalid option contracts with the landowners of the Tasso site because the amount of money to be paid for the land was excessive. In summary, Plaintiff Lewis claimed that the Airport Authority and the Commission violated local, state, and federal statutes, regulations, and procedures for rezoning the subject property. Plaintiff Lewis sought, among other things, to enjoin the Airport Authority and Commission from proceeding with construction of the new airport until there was compliance with all federal, state, and local laws.
The Trial Court eventually granted the Airport Authority's motion to dismiss and, thereafter, granted the Commission's motion for summary judgment. Because the allegations against the defendants were dismissed on different types of motions and because the issues are different with respect to the two defendants, we will discuss the pertinent facts and issues as to the two defendants separately.
In December of 2006, the Airport Authority filed a motion to dismiss claiming Plaintiff Lewis lacked standing to prosecute the petition and that Plaintiff Lewis failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Airport Authority asserted that the rezoning bore a reasonable relation to the public health, safety and morals and must be sustained as a valid exercise of the police power. The Airport Authority further claimed that Plaintiff Lewis lacked standing to challenge the validity of the option contracts and that Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 42-3-102 and 42-3-108(a)(3) authorized the Airport Authority to enter into those option contracts. The Airport Authority then claimed that the petition failed to identify any state or federal regulations that allegedly were violated and that Plaintiff Lewis failed to establish that any of those unidentified regulations created a private cause of action. As to Plaintiff Lewis' claim that taxpayer funds were improperly used, the Airport Authority maintained that he could not establish taxpayer standing enabling him to go forward with his various claims because he did not reside within the Cleveland city limits.
Following a hearing on the motion to dismiss, the Trial Court issued its ruling from the bench which later was incorporated into an order dismissing the Airport Authority. The Trial Court stated:
I do find from the pleadings that are now before the Court and the briefs in support of those pleadings, except to the extent that those briefs might state anything which is not in the pleadings, that the complaint fails to state a cause of action against the airport authority and that the plaintiff has no standing with respect to the airport authority....
Despite extensive questioning ... by the Court, I have no concept in my mind that would allow the matter to go forward on determination of whether the airport authority has acted improperly in any way either from a constitutional standpoint or from a state statutory standpoint. And I don't know about the standpoint of the FAA, that would be between the FAA and the airport authority, and I certainly would not deal with that.
Over and over the plaintiff says that the airport authority has violated statutes and regulations, but all we have is a lot of forest and no trees pointed out that the Court can grasp and understand where it might properly exercise jurisdiction with respect to looking into the motivations of the airport authority. There is no—there's not even a general allegation of fraud; there is simply a— the word is used a couple of times. But there is nothing in the pleadings at all, no allegations whatsoever which would cause the Court to think that the case should go forward against the airport authority on some ground of fraud.
And certainly the funds paid for options, the amount of those options, those don't support anything, not anything that the Court should be looking into absent specific allegations of wrongdoing because the Court would not even be able to make a judgment about that. And if that were the case, anytime a public entity purchases land as opposed to exercising the power of eminent domain, which apparently was not available to the airport authority, we would be getting into cost of the price of land and that's not appropriate except for specific allegations of fraud or arbitrary action or capricious action on behalf of the governmental entity.
I cannot imagine that the Court could decide that the airport authority was in error in not specifically considering different areas of the county for the airport and then making some kind of large deal about that. I cannot see how that would be an appropriate way to act, but that's not for me to judge. But what I say is the way the airport authority has acted according to the allegations that are before the Court is totally appropriate. I don't think the airport authority has to consider certain tracts of land or certain areas before making a decision. I think that's a matter within the judgment of the airport authority.
With respect to Mr. Lewis ... it's my opinion that as the complaint is now framed he is without standing to bring this lawsuit. He is not a city taxpayer. There's nothing in the complaint that would indicate that he is a landowner in Bradley County. He has alleged no specific injury to himself. He has, as I've said before, alleged no specific illegality on behalf of the airport authority and he made no prior demand which could be corrected by the airport authority, that is, demand to correct an illegality.
In fact, he said several times in the brief filed on his behalf that he was bringing this [laws...
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