Pine Ridge Recycling, Inc. v. Butts County, Ga.

• Decision Date: 22 June 1994
• Docket Number: C.A. No. 93-426-2-MAC (WDO).
• Parties: PINE RIDGE RECYCLING, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. BUTTS COUNTY, GEORGIA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

855 F. Supp. 1264

PINE RIDGE RECYCLING, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. BUTTS COUNTY, GEORGIA, et al., Defendants.

C.A. No. 93-426-2-MAC (WDO).

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Macon Division.

June 22, 1994.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stephen E. O'Day, Clark G. Sullivan, and George E. Butler, II, Atlanta, GA, for plaintiffs.

Joseph R. Cullens, Jack N. Sibley, H. Lane Young, II, and Nickolas P. Chilivis, Atlanta, GA, for defendants.

ORDER

OWENS, Chief Judge.

This action seeks to prevent Butts County, Georgia, its Board of Commissioners ("Board"), the Butts County Solid Waste Management Authority ("Authority"), and their individual members from opposing or otherwise interfering with the establishment of Pine Ridge's municipal solid waste landfill ("MSWLF"). Plaintiffs Pine Ridge Recycling, Inc. ("Pine Ridge") and Stephen Dale seek damages and injunctive relief against the defendants based upon violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act ("Sherman Act"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1, et seq., the Clayton Antitrust Act ("Clayton Act"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 12 et seq., the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 et seq., the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, U.S. Const. Art. 1, § 8, cl. 3, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. After careful consideration of the arguments of counsel, the relevant case law, and the record as a whole, the court issues the following order.

I. FACTS

Pine Ridge was incorporated for the purpose of developing and operating MSWLFs within Georgia. Pine Ridge has purchased options on a 201 acre site in Butts County, Georgia, and plans to construct a "Subtitle D" MSWLF thereon. Defendant Butts County Solid Waste Management Authority currently operates a MSWLF in Butts County which disposes of waste generated in Butts and surrounding counties.

Effective in the early 1990s, federal regulations, known as "Subtitle D," tightened the requirements on MSWLFs. Instead of complying with "Subtitle D" requirements, many of the MSWLFs surrounding Butts County chose to gradually cease operations. The Butts County Authority's current MSWLF does not comply with "Subtitle D", but the county intends to build a MSWLF which satisfies the regulations.

In 1993, the Butts County Authority applied for and received a vertical expansion permit to continue receiving waste at the existing landfill until July 1, 1998. The vertical expansion permit allows the Authority to dispose of as much solid waste as it can intake until July 1998; the permit does not limit the tonnage disposed of at the site. Plaintiffs allege that, by virtue of the vertical expansion permit and the lack of other nearby MSWLFs, the Butts County Authority has a monopoly on the solid waste market within the Butts County Region, the area within thirty miles of the Butts MSWLF. Plaintiffs fear this monopoly could become intractable because state law requires cities and counties to develop solid waste disposal plans assuring adequate disposal capacity over the following ten-year period. See O.C.G.A. § 12-8-31.1.

The complaint alleges that defendants view the landfill enhanced with the vertical expansion permit as a profit-making enterprise which will allow the county to partially subsidize building a new MSWLF which complies with "Subtitle D" requirements. To take advantage of the profit potential of the existing landfill, defendants have entered into multi-year contracts with neighboring municipalities and counties and private waste generators.

Plaintiffs allege defendants have also used funds generated from the vertical expansion permit to actively oppose the permitting of Pine Ridge at its current site. Pine Ridge expects to be a competitor of Butts County's MSWLF. To avoid the competition, defendants allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to monopolize the area's solid waste market and have committed illegal acts to obstruct Pine Ridge from constructing its proposed MSWLF.

Before beginning construction, Pine Ridge must receive a permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division ("EPD").¹ According to plaintiffs, defendants have falsely informed waste generators that Pine Ridge's permit application will fail and thus that they have no alternative but to contract with the Butts County landfill. In addition, defendants have threatened to charge higher tipping fees to those generators who do not cooperate in opposing Pine Ridge's permit application.

The complaint further alleges that defendants have unlawfully manipulated the permitting process in violation of RICO and in an effort to sustain their attempted monopoly of the solid waste market. Defendant's opposition allegedly includes the following actions.

1. A conspiracy between defendants and a local landowner to file suit challenging Pine Ridge's Special Exception zoning permit. Walter Crosland, a Butts County resident, brought suit in the Butts County Superior Court to invalidate the zoning exception and Butts County answered the Crosland lawsuit by admitting the allegations and proposing to invalidate the zoning permit. Complaint, ¶¶ 51-56.

2. Defendant Haley, Chairman of the Butts County Board of Commissioners, allegedly furthered the conspiracy to monopolize through a letter dated August 25, 1992, to the EPD informing them falsely that Pine Ridge's site did not conform to local zoning and land use laws. Complaint, ¶¶ 59-60.

3. Also in furtherance of the conspiracy, defendants pressured the Spalding County Board of Commissioners ("Spalding Board") to repudiate the Location Permit which allowed a MSWLF to be located near the Spalding County line. Board Member Haley warned the Spalding Board that Pine Ridge probably would not receive a permit and that defendants would remember the Spalding Board's actions when determining tipping fees. Complaint, ¶¶ 63-64.

4. Defendants manipulated the regional solid waste management plan (the "Butts Plan"), prepared in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 12-8-31.1, to classify the Pine Ridge site as unsuitable for a MSWLF. Complaint, ¶¶ 71-76.

5. Defendants, in another attempt to defeat the permit, sought to render the Pine Ridge site unsuitable under EPD regulations by granting a special exception to a local landowner to extend his privately-owned airstrip to within 6,500 feet of the site. Complaint, ¶¶ 94-100.

6. The latest obstacle to Pine Ridge's permit application is a recently enacted Butts County ordinance requiring county approval before a gravesite can be moved. Plaintiffs charge that defendants are using this ordinance to prevent development of the site ex post facto. Complaint, ¶ 101.

II. ANALYSIS

A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) attacks the legal sufficiency of the complaint. A complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless the plaintiff can prove no set of facts entitling him to relief. Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2232-33, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984) (citing Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-02, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)); Pataula Electric Membership Corp. v. Whitworth, 951 F.2d 1238, 1240 (11th Cir.1992). The court is to presume true all of the complaint's allegations and make all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Miree v. DeKalb County, Ga., 433 U.S. 25, 27 n. 2, 97 S.Ct. 2490, 2492 n. 2, 53 L.Ed.2d 557 (1977); Linder v. Portocarrero, 963 F.2d 332, 334 (11th Cir.1992); Duke v. Cleland, 5 F.3d 1399, 1402 (11th Cir.1993). The rules require nothing more than "a short and plain statement of the claim" that will give the defendant fair notice of the claims and the grounds upon which they are based. Conley, 355 U.S. at 47, 78 S.Ct. at 103.

The complaint seeks damages, a reasonable attorney's fee, injunctive relief, and declaratory relief against defendants based upon the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, RICO, the Commerce Clause, and § 1983.

A. LEGISLATIVE IMMUNITY

Butts County, Georgia, its Board of Commissioners, the Butts County Solid Waste Management Authority, and their individual members are named as defendants in their official and individual capacities. As an initial matter, the court must decide if absolute legislative immunity insulates any or all of these individuals from suit. Brown v. Crawford County, Ga., 960 F.2d 1002, 1011 (11th Cir.1992) (to preserve its purpose, entitlement to absolute immunity must be determined early on, such as on a motion to dismiss). See also Marx v. Gumbinner, 855 F.2d 783, 788 (11th Cir.1988).

"The absolute immunity of legislators, in their legislative functions, ... now is well settled." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 807, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2732, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982) (citations omitted). The United States Supreme Court has extended absolute immunity to state legislators, Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019 (1951), and to regional legislators, Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 440 U.S. 391, 99 S.Ct. 1171, 59 L.Ed.2d 401 (1979), but has not reached the issue of immunity for local legislators. See Spallone v. United States, 493 U.S. 265, 278, 110 S.Ct. 625, 633-34, 107 L.Ed.2d 644 (1990). The Court cautioned, in Spallone, that "some of the same considerations on which the immunity doctrine is based must" be considered in cases involving local legislators. Spallone, 493 U.S. at 278, 110 S.Ct. at 634. Acknowledging this precedent, the Eleventh Circuit has extended absolute legislative immunity to local legislators in the performance of traditional legislative functions. Crawford County, 960 F.2d at 1011. See also Hernandez v. City of Lafayette, 643 F.2d 1188 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 907, 102 S.Ct. 1251, 71 L.Ed.2d 444 (1982). The court in Crawford County endorsed absolute legislative immunity for individual county commissioners, regardless of whether the plaintiff could establish a conspiracy or bad faith motive on...