1704 Farmington, LLC v. City of Memphis, Tennessee

437 F. App'x 387
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2011
Docket09-6367, 10-5362
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 437 F. App'x 387 (1704 Farmington, LLC v. City of Memphis, Tennessee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
1704 Farmington, LLC v. City of Memphis, Tennessee, 437 F. App'x 387 (6th Cir. 2011).

Opinions

JOHN CORBETT O’ MEARA, District Judge.

Plaintiffs/Appellants, 1704 Farmington LLC, 1711 Farmington LLC, and 1685 Farmington LLC (“Property Owners”) own the Ridgeway Commons apartment complex in Memphis, Tennessee. Property Owners filed this suit against the City of Memphis, seeking abatement of a common law nuisance. Essentially, Property Owners contend that the City has not properly maintained a drainage ditch adjacent to Ridgeway Commons, which has flooded three times in the past ten years. The district court ruled that Property Owners failed to establish the elements of a prima facie case of nuisance and granted summary judgment in favor of the City. Property Owners then filed this appeal as well as a separate, subsequent appeal of the district court’s award of costs in favor of the City. For the reasons stated below, we AFFIRM.

I.

The drainage ditch at issue is a concrete-lined channel adjacent to the Ridge-way Commons apartment complex and intersecting Quince Road in Memphis. The ditch was constructed in sections at different times. The majority of the ditch was designed and constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by J & L Development Company, which also developed the Ridge-way Commons apartment complex. The box culvert under Quince Road was originally installed by Shelby County, but that area was subsequently annexed by the City. The City accepted an easement over the drainage ditch in 1972, including the responsibility to maintain it.

At the time the drainage ditch was constructed, the City’s design criteria for the construction of a concrete channel included a two cubic feet per second per acre requirement for watershed, which means a flow rate for water drainage equal to at least two cubic feet per second. In April 1987, the City adopted a Drainage Manual that requires concrete drainage ditches to accommodate a “25-year flood event.” The City did not require drainage systems built prior to 1987 to be updated to increase their capacity because it was not economically feasible to do so.

The City does maintain the drainage ditch by keeping the channel intact, keeping obstructions out of the channel, keeping the safety fence intact, and repairing damage to the channel. Property Owners do not allege a problem with flooding at the Ridgeway Commons from the time it was constructed until 1999. After that, the area experienced flooding in 1999, March 2004 and July 2005. About a week prior to the July 2005 flood, the City [389]*389cleaned out the drainage ditch at the request of Property Owners.

The City contends that it does not guarantee that the property adjacent to a drainage ditch will never experience flooding. Some storms are so severe that they cause flooding even when an adequately designed and constructed drainage system is in place.

The portion of the Property Owners’ property directly adjacent to the drainage ditch is lower than the elevation of the top wall of the ditch. A developer typically fills the land being developed to the top of such a wall and then develops up from that point to avoid flooding. This was not done at Ridgeway Commons, where the developer apparently developed the property below the elevation of the top of the channel wall. In addition, some water intake inlets on the property are lower than the top of the channel walls, and one has been paved over. The City contends that the lowness of Plaintiffs property and the inlets on that property, relative to the height of the drainage ditch, cause the drainage system to not function properly during heavy rains. As the water in the channel rises, water backs up through the low inlets in the property, so the water that is running downhill toward the ditch has nowhere to go, and the low areas on the property act like a detention system. The City contends that Plaintiffs could have regraded their property or constructed a drainage system to prevent flooding, but chose not to do so.

Property Owners contend that the elevation of their property and the fact that an inlet is covered are not the causes of the flooding. Rather, Plaintiffs’ expert, Guy Forney, has opined that the property floods “as a result of the drainage ditch’s inability to operate as it was intended, i.e., cany upstream water runoff and runoff from Plaintiffs’ property downstream under Quince Road.” R.E. 64 (Order Granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment) at 12. In other words, Property Owners contend that the drainage ditch lacks sufficient capacity, as a result of increased development of properties upstream from Ridgeway Commons. See R.E. 36-2 (Affidavit of Guy Forney) at ¶ 20 (“[Ujpstream development has caused the level of flood protection at the apartment complex to drop from a 100-year frequency to a 10-year frequency.”).

II.

A. Standard of Review

Property Owners argue that the district court should have applied the summary judgment standard articulated by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Hannan v. Alltel Publishing Co., 270 S.W.3d 1 (Tenn.2008), and that the failure to do so deprived them of their constitutional right to the benefits of state law. Property Owners’ argument is without merit. The standard for summary judgment is a procedural issue that is governed by federal law in diversity cases. Shropshire v. Laidlaw Transit, Inc., 550 F.3d 570, 573-74 (6th Cir.2008). Notwithstanding Property Owners’ arguments to the contrary, Shady Grove Orthopedic Assoc, v. Allstate Ins. Co., — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1431, 176 L.Ed.2d 311 (2010) does not change this rule.

This court reviews a grant of summary judgment de novo. See, e.g., Briggs v. Potter, 463 F.3d 507, 511 (6th Cir.2006). Summary judgment is appropriate if “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). When reviewing a motion for summary judgment, the facts and any reasonable inferences drawn from the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Matsu-[390]*390shita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The party opposing summary judgment, however, must present more than a “mere scintilla” of evidence; the evidence must be such that a reasonable jury could find in favor of the plaintiff. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).1

The court reviews evidentiary issues, such as the district court’s refusal to consider an affidavit, for an abuse of discretion. Briggs, 463 F.3d at 511. “A district court abuses its discretion when it relies on erroneous findings of fact, applies the wrong legal standard, misapplies the correct legal standard when reaching a conclusion, or makes a clear error of judgment.” Id. (citation omitted).

B. Evidentiary Issues

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Bluebook (online)
437 F. App'x 387, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/1704-farmington-llc-v-city-of-memphis-tennessee-ca6-2011.