United Farm. of Fla. H. Proj., Inc. v. City of Delray Beach

Citation493 F.2d 799
Decision Date12 April 1974
Docket NumberNo. 72-3804.,72-3804.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)
PartiesUNITED FARMWORKERS OF FLORIDA HOUSING PROJECT, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA, et al., etc., Defendants-Appellees.

Robert H. Graddy, Fla. Rural Legal Services, Delray Beach, Fla., Richard F. Bellman, Tarrytown, N. Y., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Robert D. Chapin, Atty., Delray Beach, Fla., Kenneth F. Hoffman, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Dept. of Pollution Control, Dept. of Legal Affairs, Tallahassee, Fla., John C. Randolph, Atty. for Palm Beach County Area Planning Bd., West Palm Beach, Fla., for defendants-appellees.

Before THORNBERRY, GODBOLD and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises out of a suit brought by the United Farmworkers of Florida Housing Project, Inc., and individual farmworkers against the City of Delray Beach, Florida, and the members of its city council, the Palm Beach County Area Planning Board and its director, and the Florida Department of Pollution Control and its director. Representatives of minority farmworkers are attempting to build a federally assisted, low income housing project in Palm Beach County, Florida. So far their efforts have been stymied by the refusal of the City to permit the proposed project to tie into the City's existing water and sewer systems. Their complaint alleges that the City's refusal was racially discriminatory and had the purpose and effect of depriving black and brown farmworkers of equal protection under the fourteenth amendment and of rights secured by federal civil rights statutes. The complaint further alleged that the Palm Beach County Area Planning Board and the State's Department of Pollution Control had illegally acquiesced in the racial discrimination practiced by the City and its officials by processing and approving the City's application for federal funds to be used to construct new waste treatment facilities.

The district court consolidated a preliminary injunction hearing with a full trial determination of the merits of the farmworkers' claims and found (1) that the City had rejected the farmworkers' request for "valid, municipal purposes," its zoning and annexation policies, (2) that the farmworkers had presented "no satisfactory evidence of racial or ethnic discrimination," (3) that there was "no evidence sufficient to shift to the City the burden of showing the absence of racial or ethnic discrimination," and (4) that the farmworkers were not entitled to bring this action as a class action.

On this appeal, the farmworkers are contending (1) that the district court applied incorrect standards in determining that there was an absence of discrimination, (2) that no compelling governmental interest has been offered to explain the denial of water and sewer services, (3) that the City's refusal to grant the needed permit violates the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, (4) that the Florida Department of Pollution Control and the Palm Beach County Area Planning Board have illegally acquiesced in the City's discrimination, and (5) that appellants were entitled to proceed as a class.

This is a case of some complexity involving the duties of municipalities and state agencies, land use planning, zoning, national housing policy, and racial discrimination. Once the factual setting is described with some precision, however, the resolution of the legal issues is clear. We reverse in part, and vacate and remand in part.

Jurisdiction

The farmworkers have contended that this action arises under the fifth, thirteenth, and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution; the general federal question jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331; the old Civil Rights Acts, 28 U.S. C. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1982, and 1983; and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(a), (b), and 3612(a).

While this case was pending on appeal, the Supreme Court held that a municipality is not a "person" within the meaning of that term in 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and therefore not a proper party defendant in a suit brought to secure injunctive relief for deprivations of § 1983 rights. City of Kenosha v. Bruno, 1973, 412 U.S. 507, 93 S.Ct. 2222, 37 L.Ed.2d 109. The Court had earlier held that a municipality is not a "person" within § 1983 for purposes of securing money damages. Monroe v. Pape, 1961, 365 U. S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492. Thus the City of Delray Beach is not a proper party if the sole jurisdictional basis is 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. And the same would appear to be true for the Palm Beach County Area Planning Board and the State Department of Pollution Control. See Moor v. County of Alameda, 1973, 411 U.S. 693, 93 S.Ct. 1785, 36 L.Ed.2d 596; Note, 87 Harv.L.Rev. 252, 258 (1973).

But it is clear that Kenosha's holding turned on the particular legislative history of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, the precursor of § 1983. Relying solely on the analysis of the Act's legislative history in Monroe, the Court concluded that "Congress did not undertake to bring municipal corporations within the ambit of" § 1983 for the purpose of securing either damages or injunctive relief.1 93 S.Ct. at 2226. The Court was careful not to exclude the possibility that the City could be a properly named defendant under the general federal question jurisdiction statute, if the requisite jurisdictional amount were present, a matter to be determined upon remand.2 Thus the opinion does not stand for the proposition that a municipality can never be sued for deprivations of civil rights.

In the instant case, we have had the benefit of neither briefs, arguments, nor findings by the district court on the subject of the City's presence under some other jurisdictional statute, such as the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604, 3612(a), or the general federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Under the circumstances, however, we need not decide the question thus posed, for the individually named city council members and the other named individual defendants are clearly proper parties under both § 1983 and the Fair Housing Act. Ex parte Young, 1908, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 ; Harkless v. Sweeny Independent School District, 5th Cir. 1970, 427 F.2d 319, 323, cert. denied, 1971, 400 U.S. 991, 91 S.Ct. 451, 27 L.Ed.2d 439 ; Reynolds v. Sims, 1964, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L. Ed.2d 506 ; Gates v. Collier, 5th Cir. 1973, 489 F.2d 298 ; Alexander v. Kammer, E.D.Mich.1973, 363 F.Supp. 324, 325 ; Citizens Committee for Faraday Wood v. Lindsay, S.D.N.Y.1973, 362 F. Supp. 651, 653. And the injunctive relief which we grant against the city council members in their official capacities will surely be felt by the City.3 Because of the complex posture of this case and because of the urgency with which this appeal has been urged, it would be both an injustice and an irresponsible waste of judicial resources to refuse to reach the merits of the case. The jurisdictional question must be decided, but under the circumstances, we choose to let the district court make that determination in the first instance.4

The Farmworkers' Request

The City of Delray Beach is a community of some diversity, located along the southeast Florida coast in Palm Beach County. Like other towns on the coast, Delray Beach offers many of its residents the comforts of sunshine and relaxed living. To the west of the City, however, lie migrant labor camps, where the style of living is not nearly so comfortable.

Out of a total population of about 350,000 in Palm Beach County, there are approximately 40,000 farmworkers, virtually all of whom are black, Mexican-American, or Puerto Rican. Some of these farmworkers live in the migrant labor camps, while others live in segregated communities in the City of Delray Beach.

Of Delray Beach's 1970 population of 19,366, almost 8,000 were black or brown, and of those, 6,400 reside in the City's segregated community, Planning Unit Five. The City recently stated that there is a great shortage of safe and sanitary housing for its low income people, that dilapidated and dangerously unsafe housing, approaching crisis proportions, is a particularly acute problem in Planning Unit Five, and that 21% of the City's households have incomes below the federally recognized poverty level of $3,000. It is undisputed that the need for low income housing in Delray Beach and in Palm Beach County is critical and desperate.

Recognizing the enormity of the problem, appellants applied for funds to build a low income housing project for farmworkers pursuant to a program of federal financial assistance administered by the Farmer's Home Administration of the Department of Agriculture.5 Under this federal program, the FmHA provides for up to 90% of the total development costs of the project in the form of an outright grant and up to 10% of the costs in the form of a loan. This particular program of assistance is available only to farmworkers and is specifically directed to their fluctuating low income situation. At the FmHA's request, the United Farmworkers of Florida Housing Project, Inc., was formed to aid in the processing of the funding application.

Representatives of the farmworkers sought to locate a site which met FmHA specifications and which was suitable for the construction of the desired low income housing. The farmworkers initially acquired an option on a parcel of land considerably west of the urban growth of Palm Beach County. But the FmHA rejected the site because it was not adjacent to an urban community with schools, libraries, shopping centers, parks, and ready access to water and sewer facilities.

A five-acre parcel, contiguous to the City's corporate boundary line but lying within the unincorporated county, was secured by an option on July 19, 1972.6 The site met the requirements of the project and of the FmHA: at that time it was zoned by the county for multiple...

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