Consejo De Desarrollo Economico De Mexicali, AC v. United States

438 F. Supp. 2d 1194, 2006 WL 1788407
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedJune 26, 2006
DocketCV-S-05-0870-PMP (LRL)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 438 F. Supp. 2d 1194 (Consejo De Desarrollo Economico De Mexicali, AC v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Consejo De Desarrollo Economico De Mexicali, AC v. United States, 438 F. Supp. 2d 1194, 2006 WL 1788407 (D. Nev. 2006).

Opinion

ORDER RE: MOTION TO DISMISS

PRO, Chief Judge.

This action was commenced on July 19, 2005, by Plaintiffs’ Complaint for Injunc-tive and Declaratory Relief challenging the final authorization of the All-American Canal Lining Project (AACLP). On February 9, 2006, this Court dismissed Counts 1-4 and 6-8 of Plaintiffs original Complaint for lack of standing (# 161). Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint on February 23, 2006 (# 177). Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint seeks injunctive and declaratory relief and asserts eight claims: unconstitutional deprivation of water rights (Count 1); constitutional tort (Count 2); equitable apportionmeni/use (Count 3); es-toppel (Count 4); violation of the National Environmental Protection Act (“NEPA”) and the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”) (Count 5); Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) violations (Count 6); unlawful take of a listed migratory bird species (Count 7); and violation of the San Luis Rey Indian Water Rights Settlement’s *1198 Act’s replacement measures (Count 8). Defendants and Defendant Intervenors 1 have filed Motions to Dismiss Counts 1-4 and 6-8 of Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint for lack of standing and also contend that Counts 5 and 7-8 are time barred. 2

I. JURISDICTION AND STANDING

In assessing Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss the claims set forth in Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, the Court applies the same legal standards concerning the limits of its jurisdiction and Plaintiffs’ standing to bring the instant claims as it applied in its prior Order regarding Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (# 161).

A. Counts 1 through 4.

1. Fifth Amendment Standing

Plaintiff CDEM argues it has standing to assert Fifth Amendment claims because some of its members are United States citizens and Fifth Amendment rights extend to foreign property owned by a United States citizen. 3 Defendants respond that Plaintiff CDEM has not demonstrated that any of its members are United States citizens and points to Plaintiff CDEM’s Articles of Incorporation that prohibit foreign persons, i.e., non-Mexican citizens, from belonging to CDEM.

Standing does not depend “on the merits of the plaintiffs contention that particular conduct is illegal.” Warth, 422 U.S. at 500, 95 S.Ct. 2197 (citation omitted). Rather it rests on both the source and nature of plaintiffs claim. Id. “It is well established that certain constitutional protections available to persons inside the United States are unavailable to aliens outside of our geographic borders.” Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 693, 121 S.Ct. 2491, 150 L.Ed.2d 653 (2001) (citing United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 269, 110 S.Ct. 1056, 108 L.Ed.2d 222 (1990); Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U.S. 763, 784, 70 S.Ct. 936, 94 L.Ed. 1255 (1950)). The United States Supreme Court has “rejected the claim that aliens are entitled to Fifth Amendment rights outside the sovereign territory of the Unit *1199 ed States.” Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. at 268, 110 S.Ct. 1056. Additionally, “[njeither the Constitution nor the laws passed in pursuance of it have any force in foreign territory unless in respect of our own citizens ... and operations of the nation in such territory must be governed by treaties, international understandings and compacts, and the principles of international law.” United States v. Curtiss-Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304, 318, 57 S.Ct. 216, 81 L.Ed. 255 (1936) (internal citation omitted).

Plaintiff CDEM and its members are Mexican citizens asserting interests in property located in the Mexicali Valley, Baja California, Mexico, outside the United States’ sovereign territory. (Am. Compl. ¶ 1; Ex. A.) Although Plaintiffs allege “[t]he membership of CDEM ... comprises both U.S. and Mexican citizens,” (Am.ComplA 1), CDEM’s Articles of Incorporation prohibit “foreign person[s]” from participation in CDEM:

ARTICLE FIFTY SEVEN. — “No foreign person, physical or legal, may have any social participation in the Civil Association” that constitutes the Mexicali Economic Development Council, A.C. “If by any reason one of the aforementioned persons by any means acquires a social participation, violating what is established in the prior paragraph”, in this act it is agreed that said acquisition will be annulled, and consequently cancelled and said social participation and the titles that represent it will have no value, considering the capital reduced in an amount equal to the cancelled participation.

(Supplemental Opp’n, Decl. of Rene Acuna, Ex. A, Mexicali Economic Dev. Council, A.C., Articles of Incorporation, Chapter 10, Art. 57 (punctuation marks in original).) Additionally, none of the declarations offered by Plaintiff CDEM contain statements by the Declarant that he or she is both a United States citizen and a CDEM member. (Supplemental Opp’n, Decl. of Rene Acuna; Decl. of Richard Elmore.) Because Plaintiff CDEM’s allegation that some of its members are United States citizens is conelusory and, in fact, contradicted by the declarations and exhibits proffered by CDEM to support standing, the Court is not required to accept the allegation in the Amended Complaint as true. Accordingly, Plaintiff CDEM has demonstrated only that its members are Mexican citizens.

Plaintiffs allege Fifth Amendment violations in Counts 1-4. In count one of the Amended Complaint, Plaintiff CDEM alleges that Defendants’ plan to line the All-America Canal constitutes a deprivation of property without due process of law, violating the class’s substantive and procedural due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In count two, Plaintiff CDEM also claims that the Secretary and Commissioner acted in concert with others to deprive CDEM and the class of their water rights without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. In count three, Plaintiff CDEM seeks equitable apportionment and use of the seepage water. Count four alleges Defendants are estopped from diverting the seepage water for their own use because CDEM and its members possess prior property rights in the water.

Because the source of counts one through four is the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Plaintiff CDEM and its members are Mexican citizens asserting interests in property outside the territory of the United States, the Court does not have jurisdiction over those claims. The Fifth Amendment does not grant persons in CDEM and its members-’ position a right to judicial relief. Therefore, Plaintiff CDEM lacks standing to assert counts one through four.

*1200 2. Standing under the 1944 Water Treaty

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438 F. Supp. 2d 1194, 2006 WL 1788407, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consejo-de-desarrollo-economico-de-mexicali-ac-v-united-states-nvd-2006.