Wyodak Res. Dev. Corp.. v. U.S.

• Citation: 637 F.3d 1127
• Decision Date: 09 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. 09–8097.,09–8097.
• Parties: WYODAK RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, Plaintiff–Appellant,v.UNITED STATES of America, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)

637 F.3d 1127

72 ERC 1481

107 A.F.T.R.2d 2011-1250

WYODAK RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.UNITED STATES of America, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 09–8097.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

March 9, 2011.

Walter Frederick Eggers, Holland & Hart LLP, Cheyenne, WY, (Andrew Abbott Irvine, Holland & Hart LLP, Jackson, WY, with him on the briefs), for the Plaintiff–Appellant.Michael Thomas Gray, (Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General with him on the briefs), United States Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Washington, D.C., for the Defendant–Appellee.

Before LUCERO, GORSUCH, Circuit Judges, and ARGUELLO, ^*District Judge.LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

Wyodak Resources Development Corporation (“Wyodak”) sued the United States in federal district court, seeking a refund of coal reclamation fees it allegedly overpaid under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (“SMCRA”), 30 U.S.C. §§ 1201–1328. The district court concluded that 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1) provided a basis for federal jurisdiction and a waiver of sovereign immunity because the reclamation fee is an “internal-revenue tax.” See id. However, the court denied relief on the merits and entered summary judgment in favor of the United States. We do not reach the merits of Wyodak's appeal. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we conclude the district court did not possess jurisdiction. Because the reclamation fee is not an “internal-revenue tax” within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1), Wyodak's claims may be filed only in the Court of Federal Claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1491.

I

Wyodak operates the Wyodak Mine, a large surface coal mine in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. As a surface mine operator, Wyodak is subject to SMCRA. To further its goal of restoring mined land, SMCRA created the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund (“the Fund”), which exists on the books of the United States Treasury, but is administered by the Secretary of the Interior. 30 U.S.C. § 1231. SMCRA authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to assess reclamation fees on each ton of “coal produced” in the United States to finance the Fund. See id. § 1232. These reclamation fees are collected by the Secretary of the Interior, id., specifically, by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (“OSM”), see 30 C.F.R. §§ 870.1–19. During the time period at issue in this case, OSM used a two-tiered reclamation fee structure: ten cents per ton for lignite coal, and thirty-five cents per ton for all other grades. See Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act of 1977, Pub.L. 95–87, tit. IV, § 402(a), 91 Stat. 445, 457.

Between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 2005, Wyodak extracted more than 82 million tons of coal from the Wyodak Mine. It reported all of this coal as non-lignite and paid the higher reclamation fee of thirty-five cents per ton. In early 2005, Wyodak retained a consulting chemist to determine whether any of the coal at the Wyodak Mine was lignite. Samples taken from the ground showed that between 9.5% and 12.3% of the coal sampled in situ was lignite. In the first two quarters of 2006, Wyodak reported to OSM that it had extracted more than 2.2 million tons of coal and asserted that 282,988.42 tons of that total was lignite based on the chemist's studies. In addition, Wyodak claimed that it had overpaid reclamation fees from 1980 to 2005 because some of the coal produced was lignite.

OSM audited Wyodak's 2006 reports and concluded that Wyodak had underpaid. OSM took the position that SMCRA regulations require the reclamation fee to be calculated “at the time of the initial bona fide sale, transfer of ownership, or use by the operator,” see 30 C.F.R. § 870.12(b), and not while coal remains in the ground. Because any lignite coal mined by Wyodak is comingled with non-lignite coal prior to sale, OSM concluded Wyodak did not qualify for the lower reclamation fee. On the same basis, OSM refused Wyodak's retroactive refund claim for the years 1980 to 2005. Both decisions were upheld by an OSM Audit Appeals Officer.

Wyodak then sued the United States in federal district court, seeking a refund of $2,245,477.14 it allegedly overpaid in reclamation fees, and a declaratory judgment with respect to future fees. Both parties moved for summary judgment. The district court rejected the United States' argument that the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, but granted the government's motion on the merits.

On appeal, Wyodak contends the district court erred in its merits determination. The government renews its argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction. We do not reach the merits because we agree with the government's jurisdictional position.

II

A

Most suits for money damages against the United States proceed under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491, which provides a limited waiver of the United States' sovereign immunity and grants “jurisdiction [to] the Court of Federal Claims for claims against the United States founded upon the Constitution, Acts of Congress, executive regulations, or contracts and seeking amounts greater than $10,000.” Normandy Apartments, Ltd. v. U.S. Dep't of Hous. & Urban Dev., 554 F.3d 1290, 1295 (10th Cir.2009) (quotation omitted). Although we have occasionally called the Court of Federal Claims' jurisdiction over such claims “exclusive,” e.g., id. (quotation omitted), its jurisdiction is only exclusive over claims which no other federal court has the authority to hear. If there is an independent source of subject-matter jurisdiction over a claim against the United States, and some waiver of sovereign immunity other than the Tucker Act, a plaintiff is free to proceed in district court. “[T]he jurisdiction of the Court of [Federal] Claims is not exclusive; rather, there is rarely any statute available that waives sovereign immunity for suits in the district court, other than the Tucker Act with its $10,000 limit.” C.H. Sanders Co. v. BHAP Hous. Dev. Fund Co., 903 F.2d 114, 119 (2d Cir.1990) (quotation and emphasis omitted) superseded by statute on other grounds, as stated in United Am. Inc. v. N.B.C.—U.S.A. Hous., Inc. Twenty Seven, 400 F.Supp.2d 59, 64 (D.D.C.2005).

Wyodak invokes one of those rare statutes that both waives sovereign immunity and grants subject-matter jurisdiction to the district courts, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1). That statute waives the United States' sovereign immunity from suit, United States v. Williams, 514 U.S. 527, 530, 115 S.Ct. 1611, 131 L.Ed.2d 608 (1995), and gives the Court of Federal Claims and the district courts concurrent jurisdiction over:

Any civil action against the United States for the recovery of any internal-revenue tax alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or collected, or any penalty claimed to have been collected without authority or any sum alleged to have been excessive or in any manner wrongfully collected under the internal-revenue laws....

28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1).

One short phrase in section 1346, “internal-revenue tax,” establishes the jurisdictional battle lines in this case. Wyodak argues that the SMCRA reclamation fee is an “internal-revenue tax” because it is collected on internal, rather than external, revenue. The United States counters that an “internal-revenue tax” is a tax collected by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.¹

The district court agreed with Wyodak, relying entirely on a Sixth Circuit opinion, Horizon Coal Corp. v. United States, 43 F.3d 234 (6th Cir.1994). In Horizon Coal, the court concluded that 28 U.S.C. § 1346 provided for district court jurisdiction over a reclamation-fee dispute because “internal-revenue tax” means “revenue generated within the boundaries of the United States, as opposed to ‘external’ revenue.” Horizon Coal, 43 F.3d at 239. The government argued that adopting the broader definition of “internal-revenue tax” would require Horizon Coal to exhaust administrative remedies with the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7422(a), which also uses the phrase “internal revenue tax.” But the Sixth Circuit held that the phrase “internal-revenue tax” had a different meaning when used in 26 U.S.C. § 7422. Although the phrase applied to all taxes on internal revenue under 28 U.S.C. § 1346, the court determined that the phrase applied only to taxes collected by the IRS when used in 26 U.S.C. § 7422. Horizon Coal, 43 F.3d at 239–40. The district court adopted this reasoning without further explanation.

B

We review the district court's jurisdictional ruling de novo. Huerta v. Gonzales, 443 F.3d 753, 755 (10th Cir.2006). The same is true of the district court's statutory interpretation. United States v. DeGasso, 369 F.3d 1139, 1144 (10th Cir.2004).

At the outset, we must state our disagreement with the district court's reliance on Horizon Coal. A core tenet of statutory construction is that “identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning.” Dep't of Revenue v. ACF Indus., 510 U.S. 332, 342, 114 S.Ct. 843, 127 L.Ed.2d 165 (1994) (quotation omitted). Both 26 U.S.C. § 7422 and 28 U.S.C. § 1346 use the phrase “internal revenue tax” (or in the latter case “internal-revenue tax”), and in both instances, the language was added by the Revenue Act of 1921, Pub.L. No. 67–98, 42 Stat. 227. See tit. XIII, § 1318, 42 Stat. at 315 (predecessor of 26 U.S.C. § 7422); tit. XIII, § 1310(c), 42 Stat. at 311 (predecessor of 28 U.S.C. § 1346). Absent some very good reason to conclude that Congress intended the phrase “internal-revenue tax” to have two different meanings within the very same act, such a tortured interpretation should be avoided. Neither the Sixth Circuit nor Wyodak has provided such a reason. We conclude that the phrase “internal-revenue tax” must mean the same thing in 28 U.S.C. § 1346 as it does in 26 U.S.C. § 7422.

This, of course,...