Littlefield v. City of Afton

• Decision Date: 11 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-5005,85-5005
• Citation: 785 F.2d 596
• Parties: James W. LITTLEFIELD and Bonnie J. Littlefield, Appellants, v. CITY OF AFTON, a Minnesota municipal corporation; George Billmeyer, Nicholas Mucciacciaro, Kenneth Kopitske, Edward Tichenor, and Richard Frenzel, members of the Afton City Council; and Helen H. Baker, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 596

785 F.2d 596

4 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1129

James W. LITTLEFIELD and Bonnie J. Littlefield, Appellants, v. CITY OF AFTON, a Minnesota municipal corporation; George Billmeyer, Nicholas Mucciacciaro, Kenneth Kopitske, Edward Tichenor, and Richard Frenzel, members of the Afton City Council; and Helen H. Baker, Appellees.

No. 85-5005.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 11, 1985.

Decided Jan. 3, 1986.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing

Feb. 11, 1986.

James W. Littlefield, Afton, Minn., pro se.

Thomas J. Radio, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellees.

Before McMILLIAN and FAGG, Circuit Judges and WOODS ^*, District Judge.

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

James W. Littlefield and Bonnie J. Littlefield appeal from a final order entered in the District Court for the District of Minnesota granting summary judgment in favor of the City of Afton, members of the Afton City Council, and Helen H. Baker (the City) and dismissing their 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) action without prejudice. For reversal, appellants argue that the district court erred in (1) holding that appellants did not have a protected property interest in the building permit, (2) holding that appellants may not maintain an action under Sec. 1983 in federal court if state remedies are available, (3) denying appellants' motion for summary judgment, and (4) denying appellants' motion to amend their complaint to allege equal protection violations. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm in part and remand this case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

On August 26, 1983, appellants acquired by warranty deed a 19.3 acre parcel of land located in Afton, Minnesota. This parcel of land is bordered on the south by South Indian Trail, a Washington County public road. On September 9, 1983, appellee Helen H. Baker, the zoning administrator of the City of Afton, advised appellants that they could not obtain a building permit to erect a residence on their land because the conveyance constituted a subdivision of their seller's property which had not been approved by the City of Afton as required by ordinance. ¹ Helen H. Baker and her husband and Robert Fritz and his wife jointly own a parcel of land to the north of but not adjoining appellants' property. The Baker-Fritz property has never had access to South Indian Trail.

On September 20, 1983, a city council meeting was held to consider the subdivision of appellants' land. The city council referred the matter to the planning commission for a public hearing on the application for a "minor subdivision." A minor subdivision is an expedited process for certain divisions of land. Afton City, Minn., Code of Ordinance, ch. 5 Sec. 905.1 (1973).

The Afton Zoning Administration Committee (AZAC) met on September 27, 1983, to consider the application for a minor subdivision. The AZAC recommended to the planning commission that the minor subdivision be approved subject to certain conditions. The planning commission held a public hearing on October 11, 1983, and subsequently recommended to the city council that the subdivision be approved subject to the earlier stated conditions. The City in its brief asserts that one of the conditions was the dedication of a public right of way across appellants' property to provide access to a land-locked parcel of land. The City Council adopted the recommendation.

The City of Afton in a letter dated July 10, 1984, advised appellants that "the city now stands willing and ready to grant you a building permit once you have conveyed to Mr. and Mrs. Baker and Mr. and Mrs. Fritz the additional public right of way."

In November 1983 appellants filed suit in federal court. Appellants sought injunctive relief and damages for deprivation of their fourteenth amendment rights. The complaint, construed liberally in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(f), alleges a denial of procedural and substantive due process and a taking without just compensation and for a non-public purpose. ²

The district court, relying on Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1912-13, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981) (Parratt), and Collier v. City of Springdale, 733 F.2d 1311, 1314-15, 1317 (8th Cir.1984) (Collier), granted summary judgment in favor of the City. On December 14, 1984, the district court granted appellants' motion to alter the judgment and entered an order dismissing the complaint without prejudice. The district court viewed appellants' complaint as alleging a procedural due process claim and a taking claim. Appellants' claims based on arbitrary action and taking for a non-public purpose were not considered by the district court as separate substantive due process claims but rather as part of the procedural due process and taking claims. The district court held that plaintiffs did not have a protected property interest in a building permit and that denial of a building permit, even if in violation of state law, is reviewable only in state court. The district court similarly held that appellants' taking claim could not be brought in federal court because state remedies, e.g., an inverse condemnation action and a writ of mandamus, were available.

Summary judgment is an extreme remedy and should not be granted unless the moving party has established its right to judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy and has established that the other party is not entitled to recover under any discernible circumstances. E.g., Mandel v. United States, 719 F.2d 963, 965 (8th Cir.1983). A party is entitled to summary judgment only if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We hold that the district court properly denied summary judgment to appellants but erred in granting summary judgment to the City on the substantive due process claim because genuine issues of material fact existed.

Procedural Due Process

Appellants initially argue that the district court erred in holding that they did not have a protected property interest in the building permit. Appellants argue that under Minnesota law the issuance of a building permit is not discretionary and that a building permit must be issued if the applicant has met all the qualifications for the permit. Appellants further argue that they have complied with all the applicable provisions of the Afton ordinances related to land use and building permits.

The parties in the present case devote a significant portion of their argument to the application of Parratt to this case. The City argues that Parratt bars this procedural due process claim in federal court because state remedies are available. We disagree.

Parratt held that a plaintiff, asserting a violation of procedural due process, must allege that a person acting under color of state law deprived him or her of a protected property interest and that the state procedures available for challenging the deprivation do not satisfy the requirements of procedural due process. 451 U.S. at 537, 101 S.Ct. at 1914. The Court stated that the requirement of a predeprivation hearing does not apply in those cases where the deprivation is the result of "a random and unauthorized act by a state employee," id. at 541, 101 S.Ct. at 1916; see Thibodeaux v. Bordelon, 740 F.2d 329, 334 (5th Cir.1984) and the "loss is not the result of some established state procedure and the State cannot predict precisely when the loss will occur .... [and] it is not only impracticable, but impossible to provide a meaningful hearing before the deprivation." Parratt, 451 U.S. at 541, 101 S.Ct. at 1916. The Court concluded that in these situations, the alleged deprivation of property was not without due process of law if the state provided adequate post-deprivation remedies. Id. at 543-44, 101 S.Ct. at 1917. Parratt therefore applies only if a determination has been made that a predeprivation hearing is not required.

Consequently, in analyzing a claim that the deprivation of property violates procedural due process, a court must first consider if the plaintiff has a constitutionally protected property interest. If there is a protected property interest, the court then considers whether the plaintiff has a right to a predeprivation hearing for the violation. A plaintiff has a right to a predeprivation hearing unless the action is random and unauthorized or the state cannot possibly provide a predeprivation hearing or the circumstances are those which the Supreme Court has recognized as excusing a predeprivation hearing. E.g., North American Cold Storage Co. v. City of Chicago, 211 U.S. 306, 320, 29 S.Ct. 101, 106, 53 L.Ed. 195 (1908) (seizure of contaminated food). If the plaintiff has the right to a predeprivation hearing, then the inquiry proceeds to what type of predeprivation hearing is required. If a predeprivation hearing is not required, the inquiry is whether state post-deprivation remedies are adequate. State post-deprivation remedies cannot satisfy due process if a predeprivation hearing is required.

We believe that the confusion evidenced by the parties and the district court may be the result of not following this type of analytical approach. Erroneously, the parties and the court considered the availability and adequacy of state postdeprivation remedies without first determining if a predeprivation hearing was required. We consider appellants' procedural due process claim against this analytical framework.

To establish a claim under Sec. 1983, plaintiffs must show that they have been deprived of a federally protected right, privilege or immunity as a result of action taken by persons acting under color of state law. E.g., Parratt, 451 U.S. at 535, 101 S.Ct. at 1912-13. Property interests are created and their dimensions defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source, such as state law, rules or understandings that support claims of entitlement to certain benefits. Id., at 529, 101 S.Ct....