Chevron USA, Inc. v. Cayetano

224 F.3d 1030, 2000 WL 1335542
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 13, 2000
DocketNo. 99-15108
StatusPublished
Cited by98 cases

This text of 224 F.3d 1030 (Chevron USA, Inc. v. Cayetano) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chevron USA, Inc. v. Cayetano, 224 F.3d 1030, 2000 WL 1335542 (9th Cir. 2000).

Opinions

Opinion by Judge BEEZER; Concurrence by Judge W. FLETCHER.

BEEZER, Circuit Judge:

Hawaii Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano and Attorney General Earl I. Anzai (collectively “the State”) appeal the district court’s judgment in favor of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. Chevron filed suit for declaratory and injunctive relief against enforcement of Section 3(c) of Act 257 of the 1997 Hawaii State Legislature (“Act 257”). Act 257, inter alia, proscribes the maximum rent that oil companies can collect from dealers who' lease company-owned service stations. Both parties moved for summary judgment on whether the maximum permissible regulated rent effects an unconstitutional regulatory taking. After concluding that it does, the district court granted Chevron’s motion and denied the State’s motion. The State appeals only the grant of summary judgment to Chevron; it does not appeal the denial of its own motion. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Because genuine issues of material fact exist, we vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings.

I

In response to concerns about the highly concentrated gasoline market in Hawaii and the resulting high cost of gasoline to consumers, the Hawaii Legislature enacted Act 257 on June 21, 1997.1 Act 257, inter alia, regulates the maximum rent an oil company can charge dealers who lease its service stations.

Chevron is one of two gasoline refiners and one of six wholesalers in Hawaii. At the retail level, Chevron sells most of its gasoline through company-owned stations, which are leased to independent dealers. Chevron leases 64 service stations to dealers in Hawaii. From 1984 through the end of 1996, Chevron relied on estimated gasoline sales to calculate the rent owed by the lessee dealers. After determining that the amount of gross rent receipts was not satisfactory, Chevron initiated a new nationwide dealer rental program in January 1997. Chevron restructured the manner in which it calculated lease rates. This program, which the parties agree would be in effect in Hawaii absent Act 257, requires the lessee dealer to pay a monthly rent, consisting of an escalating percentage of the dealer’s gross margin on actual, rather than estimated, gasoline sales. For instance, the rent would be calculated as 18% of the gross margin up to $18,000; 32% of the portion between $18,000 and $28,000; and 38% of the portion over $28,-000. In contrast, Act 257 establishes a maximum regulated rent of 15% of gross margin.

The maximum rents Chevron projects it could receive under the statutory scheme [1033]*1033imposed by Act 257 totals $6,126,646 for 1998. Chevron’s projected expenses total $6,292,855, exceeding Chevron’s projected rental income by $166,209. Chevron concedes, however, that it has not fully recovered its expenses relating to dealer stations (including ground lease rents, real property taxes, ordinary maintenance and depreciation) from rent in any state in the last 20 years.

Instead, Chevron relies on supply contracts to earn a profit. Dealers who choose to rent a station from Chevron must, as a condition of their lease, agree to purchase from Chevron all of the fuel necessary to satisfy demand at that station for Chevron gasoline. The price under the supply contract is unilaterally set by Chevron. Both the lease agreement and the supply contract permit the dealer to transfer his or her occupancy rights upon obtaining Chevron’s written consent and paying a transfer fee set by Chevron. Act 257 does not prohibit such transfers.

In conjunction with the alienability of the leaseholds, the parties stipulated to the following facts:

34. The existing dealer at the time of the enactment of Act 257 may be able to sell his leasehold at a premium that derives from the value of the dealer’s leasehold interest, given the reduced rent imposed by Act 257, assuming Chevron does not object in good faith when the selling dealer seeks Chevron’s consent to the assignment.
35. Assuming everything else remains equal, the market value of the lessee-dealer leasehold reasonably could be expected to increase as the amount of the rent payable decreases.

Based largely on these facts, Chevron moved for summary judgment on its takings claim.2 Chevron argued that Act 257 effects a regulatory taking because it fails to substantially advance a legitimate state interest. Chevron also maintained that Act 257 prevents the company from receiving a just and reasonable return. Finally, Chevron contended that Act 257 is unconstitutional because it neither provides individualized consideration, nor contains a mechanism for obtaining relief from confiscatory rent cap provisions. Because the district court resolved the first argument in Chevron’s favor, it declined to reach the other two.

On appeal, the State challenges both the standard used by the district court to evaluate Chevron’s regulatory taking claim and the court’s application of that standard in the summary judgment context.

II

“States have broad power to regulate ... the landlord-tenant relationship ... without paying compensation for all economic injuries that such regulation entails.” Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419, 440, 102 S.Ct. 3164, 73 L.Ed.2d 868 (1982). When a landowner decides to rent his land to tenants, the government may place ceilings on the rents the landowner can charge. See, e.g., Pennell v. San Jose, 485 U.S. 1, 11-12, 108 S.Ct. 849, 99 L.Ed.2d 1 (1988). “[Wjhile property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulation goes too far it will be recognized as a taking.” Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415, 43 S.Ct. 158, 67 L.Ed. 322 (1922).

The question in this case is whether Act 257 goes too far. To analyze that question, the district court concluded that “the appropriate inquiry is whether [Act 257] substantially advances a legitimate state interest.” In reaching this conclusion, the court explicitly rejected the more deferential standard urged by the State. The State argues that the courts should look only to whether “the Legislature rationally could have believed the Act would substantially advance a legitimate government purpose.”3

[1034]*1034To support this position, the State relies on a footnote in Chief Justice Rehnquist’s dissenting opinion in Keystone Bituminous Coal Association v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 107 S.Ct. 1232, 94 L.Ed.2d 472 (1987):

[0]ur inquiry into legislative purpose is not intended as a license to judge the effectiveness of legislation. When considering the Fifth Amendment issues presented by Hawaii’s Land Reform Act, we noted that the Act, “like any other, may not be successful in achieving its intended goals. But ‘whether in fact the provisions will accomplish the objectives is not the question: the [constitutional requirement] is satisfied if ... the ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
224 F.3d 1030, 2000 WL 1335542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chevron-usa-inc-v-cayetano-ca9-2000.