Center for Biological Diversity v. Marina Point Development Co.

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided March 27, 2009·No. 06-56193·Published

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY;  FRIENDS OF FAWNSKIN, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v.

MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT CO.; OKON DEVELOPMENT CO.; OKO No. 06-56193 INVESTMENTS, INC.; NORTHSHORE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES, L.P.,  D.C. No.

CV-04-07036-R

e/s/a NORTH SHORE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES, L.P.; SITE DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC.; KEN DISCENZA; VDLP MARINA POINT; VENWEST MARINA POINT, INC., e/s/a VENTURE WEST INC.; IRVING OKOVITA, Defendants-Appellants.

3698 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY;  FRIENDS OF FAWNSKIN, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v.

MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT CO.; OKON DEVELOPMENT CO.; OKO No. 07-55243 INVESTMENTS, INC.; NORTHSHORE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES, L.P.,  D.C. No.

CV-04-07036-R

e/s/a NORTH SHORE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES, L.P.; SITE DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC.; KEN DISCENZA; VDLP MARINA POINT; VENWEST MARINA POINT, INC., e/s/a VENTURE WEST INC.; IRVING OKOVITA, Defendants-Appellants.

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT 3699

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY;  FRIENDS OF FAWNSKIN, No. 07-56574

Plaintiffs-Appellees,

D.C. No.

v.

CV-04-07036-R-RZ

MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT CO.;

ORDER

OKON DEVELOPMENT CO.; OKO AMENDING

INVESTMENTS, INC.; NORTHSHORE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES, L.P.,  OPINION AND DISMISSING

e/s/a NORTH SHORE DEVELOPMENT PETITION FOR

ASSOCIATES, L.P.; SITE REHEARING AND

DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC.; KEN REHEARING EN

DISCENZA; VDLP MARINA POINT;

BANC AND

VENWEST MARINA POINT, INC., e/s/a AMENDED

VENTURE WEST INC.; IRVING OPINION

OKOVITA, Defendants-Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted

July 14, 2008—Pasadena, California

Filed August 6, 2008 Amended March 27, 2009

Before: Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Pamela Ann Rymer, and Andrew J. Kleinfeld, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Fernandez; Concurrence by Judge Rymer;

Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Kleinfeld

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT 3703 COUNSEL

Robert D. Crockett, Latham & Watkins LLP, Los Angeles, California, for the defendants-appellants.

Bernice Conn, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P., Los Angeles, California, for the plaintiffs-appellees.

ORDER

Upon reconsideration of the attorney fee issues, we amend our Opinion filed on August 6, 2008, and commencing at slip op. 99191 as follows:

(1) We revoke the last sentence of the introductory paragraph , which appears at slip op. 9925 (1029) and substitute the following in its place: “We reverse the contempt order and vacate the order awarding attorney fees.”

(2) We revoke the last sentence of the first paragraph of Part I at slip op. 9938 (1036) and substitute the following in its place: “As explained below, segregation is now required because the portion of the award based upon the CWA must fall, while the portion based upon the ESA must stand.”

(3) We revoke the whole of Part B which commences at slip op. 9938 (1036), including the footnotes, and substitute the following in its place:

The ESA provides for an award of attorney fees “whenever the court determines such award is appropriate .” 16 U.S.C. § 1540(g)(4). While that is not the typical prevailing party language, it is apparent that 1 This case is published as Center for Biological Diversity v. Marina Point Development Co., 535 F.3d 1026 (9th Cir. 2008), and we will hereafter put page references to the published Opinion in parentheses.

3704 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT it must be taken to mean and be limited to an award of fees to parties who prevail. See Marbled Murrelet v. Babbitt, 182 F.3d 1091, 1095 (9th Cir. 1999); see also Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U.S. 680, 693-94, 103 S. Ct. 3274, 3282, 77 L. Ed. 2d 938 (1983) (in a Clean Air Act case, with the same language as that in the ESA, absent “some degree of success on the merits” an award of attorney fees is not “appropriate.”). Here, it could be argued that the Center has not prevailed because the judgment of the district court in its favor must be vacated as moot.

However, it cannot be gainsaid that until the date of delisting, the judgment of the district court had the effect of giving relief to the Center and protecting the bald eagle. In short, the Center obtained a substantial and direct benefit from that judgment. It is also plain that mootness alone does not preclude an award of attorneys fees. See Richard S. v. Dep’t of Developmental Servs. of State of Cal., 317 F.3d 1080, 1088-89 (9th Cir. 2003).

In addition, the weight of authority strongly indicates that when a matter becomes moot on appeal, the court will not, and cannot, review the merits of the underlying dispute for the purpose of determining whether an award of attorney fees was proper. That is to say, although it can consider whether the plaintiff prevailed at all, it cannot ask whether the district court’s underlying decision on the merits was erroneous. See Diamond v. Charles, 476 U.S. 54, 69-72, 106 S. Ct. 1697, 1707-08, 90 L. Ed. 2d 48 (1985) (holding that where plaintiff prevailed but case became moot on appeal, there was no jurisdiction to consider the award of attorney fees against the appealing intervenor); UFO Chuting of Hawaii, Inc. v. Smith, 508 F.3d 1189, 1196-97 (9th Cir. 2007) (stating that if plaintiffs obtain direct benefit

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT 3705 before case becomes moot, attorney fees are proper); Cammermeyer v. Perry, 97 F.3d 1235, 1238 (9th Cir. 1996) (stating that “[t]he existence of an attorneys’ fees claim does not resuscitate an otherwise moot controversy.”); Dahlem ex rel. Dahlem v. Bd. of Educ., 901 F.2d 1508, 1512 (10th Cir. 1990) (stating that once case becomes moot, review does not involve considering whether district court correctly decided the merits); Palmer v. City of Chicago, 806 F.2d 1316, 1321 (7th Cir. 1986) (assuming, but not deciding, that a plaintiff who obtains some relief can obtain fees, even if the case becomes moot.); Bishop v. Comm. on Prof’l Ethics and Conduct, 686 F.2d 1278, 1290 (8th Cir. 1982) (stating that where case has become moot after party obtains relief, the court will decide if party prevailed “without regard to whether we think the district court’s decision on the underlying merits is correct.”); United States v. Ford, 650 F.2d 1141, 1144 n.1 (9th Cir. 1981) (stating that “there is no right to review or redetermine any of the issues in the underlying action solely for the purpose of deciding the attorney’s fee question .”); Williams v. Alioto, 625 F.2d 845, 847-48 (9th Cir. 1980) (holding that where plaintiffs obtained some relief before case became moot, on appeal, attorney fees were proper); Curtis v. Taylor, 625 F.2d 645, 648-49 (5th Cir. 1980) (stating “a claim for attorney’s fees . . . does not salvage an otherwise moot case.”); Bagby v. Beal, 606 F.2d 411, 414 (3rd Cir. 1979) (declaring that when case had become moot after plaintiff prevailed at district court level, appellate court could not review the merits of the case to decide if fees should have been awarded to plaintiff, that is, the court would not do indirectly what it could not do directly).

While the result of eschewing review of the merits of a decision that has led to a substantial award of 3706 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL v. MARINA POINT DEVELOPMENT attorney fees may be somewhat disquieting at times, we see no ultimately principled and persuasive reason to deviate from the above line of authority. We will, instead, adhere to the wide agreement by appellate judges that they should not undertake to delve into the details of a district court’s resolution of a controversy that has since become moot in order to decide the ancillary question of fees.

All of the above being true, the portion of the attorney fee award based upon the ESA still stands.

(4) We revoke the whole of Part II, which commences at slip op. 9940 (1037) and substitute the following in its place:

II. Contempt

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