Najas Realty, LLC v. Seekonk Water Dist.

• Decision Date: 02 May 2016
• Docket Number: No. 15–1320.,15–1320.
• Citation: 821 F.3d 134
• Parties: NAJAS REALTY, LLC; Petra Building Corporation, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. SEEKONK WATER DISTRICT; Robert Bernardo, individually and in his capacity as the Superintendent of the Seekonk Water District, Defendants, Appellees, Christopher Halkyard, in his capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; Christine Allen, in her capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; Phillip Campbell, in his capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; John Does 1–10; Jane Roes 1–10; XYZ Corporations 1–10, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

821 F.3d 134

NAJAS REALTY, LLC; Petra Building Corporation, Plaintiffs, Appellants

v.SEEKONK WATER DISTRICT; Robert Bernardo, individually and in his capacity as the Superintendent of the Seekonk Water District, Defendants, Appellees

Christopher Halkyard, in his capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; Christine Allen, in her capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; Phillip Campbell, in his capacity as member of the Seekonk Water Board; John Does 1–10; Jane Roes 1–10; XYZ Corporations 1–10, Defendants.

No. 15–1320.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

May 2, 2016.

Eric S. Brainsky, with whom Michael E. Levinson was on brief, for appellants.

John Joseph Davis, with whom Seth Brandon Barnett was on brief, for appellees.

Before TORRUELLA, LYNCH, and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges.

THOMPSON

, Circuit Judge.

This action stems from the plaintiffs' purchase of a piece of land and the opposition the defendants mounted to the plaintiffs' plan to develop that property. Plaintiffs responded by filing suit, claiming the defendants' conduct violated various constitutional and state law provisos but the suit never made it past the pleadings stage. The district court granted judgment on the pleadings in favor of the defendants and, after taking a fresh look, we affirm.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Since this appeal follows a judgment on the pleadings, we take the facts from the pertinent pleadings and, here, that means the amended complaint,¹ the answer, the defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings, and the plaintiffs' opposition thereto (with attached meeting minutes). Grajales v. Puerto Rico Ports Auth., 682 F.3d 40, 43 (1st Cir.2012)

.

Plaintiff Najas Realty, LLC (“Najas”) is a real estate development and property holding company and plaintiff Petra Building Corporation (“Petra”) is a home building company. Both are based in Rhode Island and both have the same principal owner. Defendant Seekonk Water District (the “Water District”) is an independent governmental entity charged with ensuring and maintaining safe drinking water in Seekonk, Massachusetts (the “Town”). Defendant Robert Bernardo is the Water District's Superintendent.

In early 2012, Najas purchased a ten-acre parcel of land in Seekonk (the “Property”). It filed a preliminary subdivision plan application with the Seekonk Planning Board seeking to construct a ten-lot subdivision on the Property, to be called Pine Hill Estates (the “Pine Hill project”).

The Seekonk Board of Health met to discuss the proposal and Bernardo spoke at the meeting. He expressed concern, which the plaintiffs call bogus, that the proposed subdivision could impact the Town's public water supply given its proximity to one of the Town's wells, known as GP–4. Bernardo contended that the soil in the vicinity of GP–4 had elevated nitrate levels due to a malfunctioning septic system that serviced a nearby middle school, and he asked the Board to consider this fact when contemplating whether and how the Property should be developed.² After some debate, the Board of Health decided to require Najas to perform a nitrate loading analysis as part of its definitive plan submission, which, according to plaintiffs, was a costly endeavor.

Later on in the meeting, after the plaintiffs' representative had left, Bernardo and the board members spoke more about how to deal with the potential impact of the Pine Hill project, at which point Bernardo said (among other things) that he wanted Najas “to go away” and that it should be made to “jump every hurdle.” Bernardo also explained that Najas had outbid the Water District, which, at some point, had tried to purchase the Property in an effort to “protect” it.³

The Town's Board of Selectmen also convened to discuss the Pine Hill project.⁴ Bernardo appeared at that hearing and repeated his concerns about increased nitrate levels in the area of the Property. He suggested that increased nitrates from the Pine Hill project's proposed septic systems could lead to health issues for the residents of Seekonk, including the risk of pregnant or nursing mothers having their infants contract “Blue Baby Syndrome,” a severe medical condition that causes infants to asphyxiate. Bernardo reiterated similar concerns at a joint meeting between the Board of Health, the Board of Selectmen, and the Water District, which was convened given the concerns that had been raised about the Pine Hill project. Again, according to plaintiffs, the unease Bernardo voiced was unfounded.

A couple of months later, following Najas's completion of the special nitrate loading analysis and submission of its definitive subdivision plan, the Board of Health met to discuss the plan. There plaintiffs presented evidence that purported to show that the Pine Hill project satisfied the regulatory requirements for septic systems and that the nitrate levels in the area of the GP–4 well were within regulatory limits. The Board of Health voted to approve the nitrate loading analysis and the Pine Hill project.

The Planning Board held a public hearing a month later. Although the Planning Board's peer review engineer had not raised any concerns regarding the nitrate level in the area or potential groundwater contamination, Bernardo appeared at the meeting to again voice worry about the Pine Hill project's impact on the public water supply, including the potential health consequence of Blue Baby Syndrome.

⁵ He suggested that the project could cause the Town to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars dealing with the increased nitrates and that the data Najas engineers had submitted to the Board of Health was false. After convening to review the data, the Planning Board denied the Pine Hill project.

Najas appealed to the Massachusetts Land Court and ultimately settled that matter by agreeing to reduce the number of lots from ten to nine and to shorten the road length. The Planning Board took up the revised plan at another public meeting; again Bernardo was there sounding the alarm on the water contamination issues. This time the Planning Board approved the Pine Hill project. Undeterred, the Water District filed a petition with the Planning Board to rescind and/or modify the approved plan.

Prior to the hearing on the petition, according to the plaintiffs, Bernardo embarked on a campaign of defamation, spreading the same supposed falsehoods about the Pine Hill project leading to public water contamination and Blue Baby Syndrome. At the Planning Board hearing, Bernardo raised the same health concerns, again cautioned the board about the potential cost to the Town, and suggested that potential buyers of the future homes could be opening themselves up to legal action. The Planning Board was not convinced and it denied the Water District's petition. The Pine Hill project went ahead as planned, though the plaintiffs claim one more transgression, which is the Water District unreasonably delaying acting on Najas's application to connect the Pine Hill project to the public water supply infrastructure.

II. TRAVEL OF THE CASE

The plaintiffs filed suit, the operative complaint for our purposes being the amended complaint. In essence, it alleged that the concerns Bernardo raised about the Pine Hill project's impact on the Town's water supply were baseless, inflammatory, and defamatory, and part of a retaliatory campaign by Bernardo and the Water District meant to “interfere with and ultimately destroy” the plaintiffs' businesses and reputations. The plaintiffs' theory was that the defendants were seeking to punish the plaintiffs for outbidding the Water District on the Property, to penalize them for seeking to develop it, and to coerce them into abandoning the project. Plaintiffs alleged that they suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, some stemming from home buyers walking away from lots they had reserved.

As for the legal nuts and bolts, the plaintiffs claimed that Najas deprived them of their constitutional rights, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983

, and state law rights, citing the state-law analogue to § 1983, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (“MCRA”), Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 12, § 11I. Counts I and III contained First Amendment retaliation claims that, respectively, concerned Najas's right to petition and freedom of speech, with Counts II and IV presenting the corresponding Massachusetts claims.⁶ Count XI was a Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claim; Count X was its state law equivalent. And rounding out the constitutional claims was Najas's Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claim, again both federal and state (Counts XII and XIII). Finally, there was Count XV, this one on behalf of both Najas and Petra, for tortious interference with advantageous business relations.

A few months after answering the amended complaint, the defendants, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c)

, moved for partial judgment on the pleadings seeking dismissal of the above-chronicled counts. Defendants maintained that the plaintiffs had failed to mount a single viable cause of action.

Plaintiffs opposed the motion, claiming that they had met their pleading burden and, for support, attached the meeting minutes from various pertinent board meetings. The plaintiffs also sought leave to file a second amended complaint. The proposed augmentations had to do with the plaintiffs' equal protection claim; specifically, plaintiffs sought to identify similarly situated comparators and the disparate treatment they were subject to.⁷

The district court was unconvinced on all fronts. It ruled for the defendants, granting judgment in their favor on all of the disputed counts due to the plaintiffs' failure to state any viable claims. The court also denied plaintiffs' motion to amend the amended complaint. It concluded that the motion was futile because, even with the new additions, the proposed second amended complaint failed to state an equal protection claim. After the court granted the plaintiffs' motion to voluntarily dismiss the...