High Country Citizens Alliance v. Clarke

454 F.3d 1177, 36 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20143, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18326, 2006 WL 2037154
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJuly 21, 2006
Docket05-1085
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 454 F.3d 1177 (High Country Citizens Alliance v. Clarke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
High Country Citizens Alliance v. Clarke, 454 F.3d 1177, 36 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20143, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18326, 2006 WL 2037154 (10th Cir. 2006).

Opinions

KELLY, Circuit Judge.

High Country Citizens’ Alliance, Town of Crested Butte, Colorado and the Board of Commissioners of the County of Gunni-son, Colorado (collectively, Plaintiffs) appeal from the district court’s dismissal, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, of two claims of their three-claim complaint. Plaintiffs’ complaint arises out the issuance of a mining patent and names two groups of defendants — federal defendants including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Kathleen Clark in her official capacity as BLM Director, Ron Wenker in his official capacity of the Colorado Bureau of Land Management Director, the United States Department of the Interior (collectively, BLM); and private defendants including Mount Emmons Mining Company (MEMCO) and Phelps Dodge Corporation 1 (collectively, MEMCO). The district court entered final judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b) on the two claims involved in this appeal. ApltApp. 56. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and affirm.

Background

In December 1992, MEMCO filed a mineral patent application with the BLM, pursuant to the General Mining Law of 1872, 30 U.S.C. §§ 21-47, (“1872 Mining Law”). MEMCO sought a patent on approximately 174 acres of public land in the Gunnison National Forest. 30 U.S.C. § 29. MEM-CO asserted in its application that these mining claims, located in 1977 (and amended in 1978), contained valuable deposits of molybdenum.

Plaintiffs filed three separate administrative protests with the BLM, objecting to the grant of MEMCO’s application. They argued that the mining claims MEM-CO seeks to patent do not contain the required “discovery of a valuable mineral deposit” within each claim, and that the issuance of a patent for the acreage of the [1180]*1180claims exceeds that allowed by the 1872 Mining Law. None of the Plaintiffs, now or ever, claim a competing property interest in any of the land.

The BLM determined that nine of MEMCO’s claims satisfied patent requirements. On April 2, 2004, the BLM simultaneously dismissed the Plaintiffs’ protests in a twelve-page decision, Aplt. Appx. at 61-72, and granted MEMCO a patent for nine of its claims, covering approximately 155 acres. The Plaintiffs filed suit against the BLM and MEMCO twelve days later, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. In their complaint, the Plaintiffs asserted three claims: (1) the BLM violated the 1872 Mining Law and the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706 (“APA”) by granting MEMCO the patent, (2) the BLM violated the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, by withholding certain documents from Plaintiffs, and (3) the BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (“FLMPA”), 43 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1784, and the APA by depriving Plaintiffs an opportunity to review the patent application and failing to provide prompt notice of the denial of the protests and a statement of reasons for the denial.

Plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction on May 7, 2004, seeking to restore title in the patented lands to the United States. MEMCO filed a motion to dismiss all claims pursuant to Fed.R.CivP. 12(b)(6). The BLM filed a similar motion to dismiss with regards to the Plaintiffs’ first and third claims pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1), and answered the second claim.

On January 12, 2005, the district court granted BLM and MEMCO’s motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and denied the Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction as moot. Aplt.App. 39-55, 56. The district court then entered judgment on the first and third claims in favor of the various defendants pursuant to Fed.R.CivP. 54(b). The district court held that third parties who claim no ownership interest in the land subject to a mineral patent cannot challenge the issuance or validity of the patent under the 1872 Mining Law and have no right to relief under the APA. Id. at 43. On appeal, the Plaintiffs challenge that conclusion.2 Specifically, the Plaintiffs argue that the district court erred by (1) ignoring the presumption of reviewability of agency actions under the APA, (2) holding that aggrieved persons cannot seek judicial review of BLM patenting decisions, (3) dismissing Plaintiffs’ substantive APA claim, and (4) dismissing the private defendants from the case. The question of whether the APA waives sovereign immunity for Plaintiffs, who claim no adverse interest in the land, to bring a suit challenging the issuance of a patent under the 1872 Mining Law, is a matter of first impression.

Discussion

A. Standard of Review

Because the district court dismissed the Plaintiffs’ action for want of subject matter jurisdiction, we review the district court’s grant of the motions to dismiss de novo. Georgacarakos v. United States, 420 F.3d 1185, 1186 (10th Cir.2005); Davis ex rel. Davis v. United States, 343 F.3d 1282, 1294 (10th Cir.2003) (grant of motion to dismiss under either Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) or 12(b)(6) is reviewed de novo). We as[1181]*1181sume the truth of all facts Plaintiffs allege. Georgacarakos, 420 F.3d at 1186.

B. Subject Matter Jurisdiction-Federal Appellees

It is well settled that the Plaintiffs can only sue the BLM to the extent it waived its sovereign immunity. E.g. United States v. Sherwood, 312 U.S. 584, 586, 61 S.Ct. 767, 85 L.Ed. 1058 (1941). While 28 U.S.C. § 1331 grants the court jurisdiction over all “civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States,” it does not independently waive the Government’s sovereign immunity; § 1331 will only confer subject matter jurisdiction where some other statute provides such a waiver. City of Albuquerque v. United States Dep’t. of the Interior, 379 F.3d 901, 906-07 (10th Cir.2004). Waiver of sovereign immunity must be explicit and cannot be implied. Villescas v. Abraham, 311 F.3d 1253, 1256-57 (10th Cir.2002).

The APA serves as a limited waiver of sovereign immunity, not a grant of subject matter jurisdiction. Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 105-07, 97 S.Ct. 980, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977); City of Albuquerque, 379 F.3d at 907; New Mexico v. Regan, 745 F.2d 1318, 1321 (10th Cir.1984).

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Bluebook (online)
454 F.3d 1177, 36 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20143, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18326, 2006 WL 2037154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/high-country-citizens-alliance-v-clarke-ca10-2006.