Guthrie v. Alabama By-Products Company

328 F. Supp. 1140, 1 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20334, 2 ERC (BNA) 1692, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12771
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedJune 21, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 71-21
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 328 F. Supp. 1140 (Guthrie v. Alabama By-Products Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guthrie v. Alabama By-Products Company, 328 F. Supp. 1140, 1 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20334, 2 ERC (BNA) 1692, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12771 (N.D. Ala. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LYNNE, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, as lower riparian landowners, seek damages and injunctive relief for alleged water pollution.

This action was filed on behalf of some 65 named plaintiffs “and all others similarly situated.” Plaintiffs allege that they are riparian landowners along the Warrior River, a navigable waterway, and some of its tributary creeks which run through the industrial valley of Birmingham. The defendants named in the original complaint are some 19 industrial corporations who, plaintiffs aver, discharge liquid wastes from their industrial plants into creeks emptying into the Warrior River. Plaintiffs allege that they own riparian lands downstream from the points where some or all of the defendants discharge such wastes; that they use these lands for both commercial and recreational purposes; and that the wastes discharged by defendants cause the waters of the Warrior River to be harmful and offensive to fish, wildlife, livestock and human beings, including the plaintiffs, and that as a consequence of this pollution the use, value and enjoyment of their riparian lands have been impaired.

In the original complaint, federal jurisdiction is posited exclusively upon 28 U.S.C.A. § 1331, the theory being that the defendants are discharging the wastes complained of in violation of Section 13 of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899. 1 In addition, plaintiffs contend that the defendants are liable for the same acts on common law theories of negligence, trespass and nuisance.

Defendants filed motions to dismiss the original complaint advancing the ground, inter alia, that this court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action because the matter in controversy does not arise under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States within the meaning of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1331.

Plaintiffs thereafter filed three amendments to the complaint. The first such amendment alleges (a) diversity of citizenship between the plaintiffs and some, but not all, of the defendants, (b) that the State of Alabama has issued or provided for the issuance of permits to the defendants for their industrial waste discharges through the Alabama Water Improvement Commission, (c) that the complaint, as amended, raises a federal question under one of the Civil Rights Acts, 2 (d) that the complaint, as amended, raises a federal question under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and (e) class action allegations of the type sanctioned by Rule 23, F.R.Civ.P.

By two additional amendments, plaintiffs (a) strike two of the original plaintiffs and add fourteen new plaintiffs, (b) add three defendants, (c) assert jurisdiction under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, (d) urge pendent jurisdiction of their non-federal claims, and (e) divide their claim into six separate counts, asserting claims which may be summarized as based upon violations of 33 U.S.C.A. § 407, negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, nuisance and deprivation of property and the enjoyment thereof in violation of 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, and of the 5th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Defendants refiled motions to dismiss the complaint as amended again adverting to the lack of federal question jurisdiction and the lack of diversity jurisdiction, inter alia. The court has considered the extensive briefs from all parties and the thoroughly excellent oral *1143 arguments of counsel, and has concluded that this court does not have jurisdiction of the subject matter of this action.

Diversity of Citizenship

The amended complaint discloses facially that some of the defendants are citizens of Alabama, as are the plaintiffs. A fundamental principle of federal diversity jurisdiction is that the diversity must be complete, so that all the plaintiffs are citizens of different states from all the defendants. 3 Plaintiffs’ suggestion that the joinder of claims permitted by Rule 20, F.R.Civ.P., relieves the necessity of complete diversity will not do. There is no federal jurisdiction of this action based on diversity of citizenship. Moreover, since the lack of diversity is an actual defect, and not merely a formal one, it cannot be cured by a further amendment. 4

Civil Rights Act and U. S. Constitution

42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 gives a right of action to redress certain deprivations, under color of state law, of “ * * * rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws * * * ” of the United States. However, this civil rights statute is intended for the protection of personal liberties rather than for the protection of property rights. 5

In this action plaintiffs sue as riparian landowners. All of the injuries complained of relate to plaintiffs’ interests in real property. These are not the kinds of interests protected by 42 U.S. C.A. § 1983.

Another element that is essential to a claim under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 is that the action complained of be “under color” of state law. It is likewise necessary, in order to invoke the protection of the 14th Amendment, that there be “state action.” 6 The only state action, or action under color of state law, alleged in the amended complaint, is that Alabama has created an agency known as the Water Improvement Commission and conferred upon it power to issue permits for the discharge of industrial liquid wastes and that some of the defendants are discharging the wastes complained of pursuant to such permits. Alabama’s issuance of a permit for industrial waste discharges, even though the issuing agency has power to regulate or prohibit the discharges, is not the kind of state action which makes such discharges subject to the limitations of the 14th Amendment ; nor does the fact that the defendants, or some of them, obtained such permits convert their discharges of industrial waste into action under color of state law within the ambit of the civil rights acts. 7

The 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States applies to action of the federal government. Plaintiffs do not allege a federal permit or any other basis for attributing responsibility for the industrial waste discharges complained of to the federal government.

Accordingly, the amended complaint does not present a controversy which arises under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, or under the 5th or 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

*1144 The Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899

Plaintiffs have urged with great emphasis that there is federal question jurisdiction on the ground that the amended complaint presents a controversy arising under Section 13 of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899. 8 Plaintiffs allege that the defendants’ discharges are “refuse” within the meaning of 33 U.S.C.A.

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Bluebook (online)
328 F. Supp. 1140, 1 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20334, 2 ERC (BNA) 1692, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guthrie-v-alabama-by-products-company-alnd-1971.