Sucesion Suarez v. Gelabert, 82-1576
| Decision Date | 09 March 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-1576,82-1576 |
| Parties | SUCESION SUAREZ through its members, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Pedro A. GELABERT, et al., Defendants, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Edelmiro Salas Garcia, Ponce, P.R., for plaintiffs, appellants.
Nicolas Jimenez, San Juan, P.R., with whom Jimenez & Fuste, San Juan, P.R., was on brief, for Pedro A. Gelabert.
Lourdes Del Carmen Rodriguez, Asst. Sol. Gen., Dept. of Justice, San Juan, P.R., with whom Miguel Pagan, Acting Sol. Gen., San Juan, P.R., was on brief, for defendants, appellees Fred Soltero Harrington and Gabriel Santos.
Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, CAMPBELL and BOWNES, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs in this case are owners of approximately 75 acres of land in the Municipality of Loiza, Puerto Rico, from which they desired to extract sand. Defendants are officials of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Municipality of Loiza, all of whom, plaintiffs claim, conspired to deprive them of their property rights without due process of law by refusing to grant them a sand extraction permit.
Under Puerto Rico law, plaintiffs were required, before extracting sand from their land, to receive a sand extraction permit from the DNR. After a public hearing to examine the environmental and public safety effects of the proposed sand extraction, the DNR on February 18, 1977, gave plaintiffs a one year permit to extract sand. The permit was revocable on violation of its terms or of the laws of Puerto Rico. It was also conditioned on the plaintiffs' obtaining from the EQB an emission source permit to operate their sand extraction machine.
In response to public concern, the EQB, rather than simply reviewing the environmental effects of plaintiff's sand extraction machine, held a second set of public hearings to examine the environmental and safety effects of plaintiffs' proposed sand extraction. The EQB determined that the sand extraction would have adverse effects on health, tranquility and general welfare and denied the emissions source permit.
Plaintiffs claimed in the district court that the action of the defendants, in having the EQB review the findings of the DNR and, by denying them an emission source permit, effectively revoking their sand extraction permit, was a taking of their property without due process of law and without just compensation. They sought damages from the defendants, under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 and 1985, of approximately $15,000 for the market price of the sand they were prevented from extracting, the value of the land which they alleged had no productive use other than sand extraction, and other incidental expenses.
In response to motions to dismiss or for summary judgment by the defendants, the court below examined plaintiffs' taking and due process claims. It determined that under Puerto Rico law, plaintiffs had no unqualified right to ownership of the sand located in their property and, therefore, that they were not entitled to compensation for denial of...
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