Skydiving Center v. ST. MARY'S CTY. AIRPORT COM'N, Civ. No. JFM-92-1012.
| Decision Date | 16 April 1993 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. JFM-92-1012. |
| Citation | 823 F. Supp. 1273 |
| Parties | The SKYDIVING CENTER OF GREATER WASHINGTON, D.C., INC., et al. v. ST. MARY'S COUNTY AIRPORT COMMISSION, et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
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Harvey Jacobs, Joyce and Jacobs, Washington, DC, for plaintiffs.
William J. Chen, Jr., Chen, Walsh & Tecler, Rockville, MD, and Nicholas Hamner Cobbs, Washington, DC, for defendants.
The Skydiving Center of Greater Washington, D.C., Inc. ("the Skydiving Center") and Cynthia and Kevin Gibson have brought this action against the St. Mary's County Airport Commission ("Airport Commission" or "Commission") and the Board of St. Mary's County Commissioners ("County Commissioners"). Plaintiffs assert various claims arising from actions taken by defendants to prevent plaintiffs from conducting parachuting jumps at the St. Mary's County Airport. Numerous motions are pending, including a motion for partial summary judgment filed by plaintiffs and a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment filed by defendants.
The Skydiving Center is a Maryland corporation which operates a skydiving school at the St. Mary's County Airport. Cynthia Gibson is the president and majority shareholder of the Skydiving Center. She holds the top rating given by the United States Parachute Association ("USPA"), is a former national skydiving champion, a two-time world skydiving record holder and has successfully completed over three thousand parachute jumps. She devotes all of her time to running the operations of the Skydiving Center. Kevin Gibson, her husband, is the vice-president and minority shareholder of the Skydiving Center. Like Mrs. Gibson, he holds the top rating given by the USPA and has successfully completed over three thousand parachute jumps. He also holds an FAA student pilot certificate. He works part-time at the Skydiving Center.
The Airport Commission is a commission established to regulate the St. Mary's County Airport. The Commission is comprised of seven part-time volunteers, most of whom have substantial aviation experience. The County Commissioners are the governing body of St. Mary's County and constitute a municipal corporation under Maryland law. Md.Ann.Code, Art. 25 § 1 (1992 Cum.Supp.).
On April 10, 1990, the Airport Commission voted to enter into a five year lease with the Skydiving Center. Plaintiffs were permitted to commence operations in June 1990 notwithstanding the fact that they had not yet actually entered into a lease. On September 22, 1990, the County Commissioners signed the lease. Under the lease the Skydiving Center agreed, inter alia, to comply "with all Federal, State, or Local Laws, County or local ordinances, rules or regulation, now or hereafter in force, which may be applicable to the operation of its business at the Airport." According to defendants, one of the rules promulgated by the Airport Commission restricted the area in which skydivers were permitted to land.1
Shortly after the Skydiving Center commenced its operations, the Airport Commission began to receive complaints about skydiving activities. These complaints included allegations that skydivers had been landing outside of the designated landing area, that they had failed to use strobe lights after sunset and that they had jumped through clouds and in other ways dangerous to aircraft using the airport's runways. The complaints resulted in the Commission sending a memorandum to the Skydiving Center on November 19, 1990 notifying it that it was failing to comply with lease requirements and directing it to cease all night skydiving operations. However, at a meeting on January 8, 1991, the Airport Commission (at the request of Mr. Gibson) agreed to remove this night restriction from proposed rules which the Commission was considering, provided that the rules and regulations on lighting were observed.
Over the next several months, as evidenced by reports referred to in the Airport Commission's regular monthly meetings, "out-field landings" occasionally occurred. It was not until the Commission's May 14, 1991 meeting, however, that the minutes reflect any special concern about these landings. At that meeting Tony Tiburzi, the owner of an adjacent property, spoke from the audience, complaining that a skydiver had been injured while landing on his driveway the past weekend. Tiburzi further stated that this was the third time in the past five weeks that someone had landed on his field, that he deserved his privacy and that he did not want skydivers disturbing animals that he kept on his property. Mr. Gibson replied that although he could not guarantee that jumpers would never again land on Tiburzi's property, he would advise the skydivers of Tiburzi's concern and try to work out a resolution of the problem.
At the Commission's next meeting, held on June 11, 1991, Tiburzi again appeared and said that jumpers were still landing on his property and that he wanted the Commission to have them stopped. He and his wife continued to complain about the skydivers throughout the remainder of the year. On one occasion Tiburzi read a petition with 120 signatures calling for the Airport Commission to rescind the Skydiving Center's lease. He also stated that he was putting up no-trespass notices and that he would have skydivers who landed on his field arrested for trespassing. At a later meeting he lamented that he had been advised by the police that the skydivers could not be arrested for trespassing "due to a technicality in that skydivers cannot read `no trespass' signs while landing."
Although the minutes of the Commission's meeting reflect that Tiburzi was perhaps the most consistent critic of the Skydiving Center, other persons registered complaints about its operations as well. In August 1991 Mrs. Gibson reported that she had met with one Mary Helen Bowles concerning a "mishap" which had occurred on Mrs. Bowles' property but that Mrs. Bowles had not reported any problems concerning the skydivers and had not requested any compensation for damage to her property. At the end of the meeting Mrs. Bowles rose to dispute what Mrs. Gibson had said, explaining that she had not asked for any compensation because she did not yet know what damage had been done. Other persons, including the president of Quik-Aero, the Fix Based Operator at the airport, wrote letters and memoranda to Commission members complaining about off-field landings and other skydiving activities. In response, the Commission wrote to the Skydiving Center requiring it to submit reports about each off-field landing. Tensions escalated to the point that the Gibsons consulted their lawyers, and, at the Airport Commission meeting held on September 10, 1991, Mrs. Gibson, on the advice of counsel, refused to respond to a complaint about an alleged off-field landing. She said that any future complaints should be submitted in writing to the Skydiving Center.
The Commission reported at its November 12, 1991 meeting that the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") was investigating the off-field landings problem. According to an internal FAA memorandum dated December 6, 1991, the FAA had been monitoring skydiving operations at the St. Mary's County Airport ever since the Skydiving Center had begun its operations and had handled numerous complaints filed by various persons regarding the conduct of those operations. The memorandum further reflects that FAA safety inspectors had participated in several meetings, characterized as "very thorough and comprehensive," with members of the local community, the Airport Commission and the Skydiving Center about skydiving operations and that the results of a safety inspection at the airport conducted on November 21, 1991 were satisfactory. The report concluded by stating that the FAA would conduct further surveillances at the airport and it would continue its investigation.
On December 3, 1991, the County Commissioners wrote to the Airport Commission. The letter stated as follows:
George Haliscak, the chairperson of the Airport Commission, announced at the Commission's December 10, 1991 meeting that the Commission had received this letter and that the Commission would be sending a letter outlining specific actions which the Skydiving Center would be required to take to resolve the problems at the airport. The following day the letter was sent.
On February 12, 1992, the Airport Commission sent a memorandum to the County Commissioners responding to their December 3rd letter. The memorandum stated as follows:
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