Hutchens v. United States

89 Fed. Cl. 553, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 319, 2009 WL 3232703
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedOctober 6, 2009
DocketNo. 09-207L
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 89 Fed. Cl. 553 (Hutchens v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hutchens v. United States, 89 Fed. Cl. 553, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 319, 2009 WL 3232703 (uscfc 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MILLER, Judge.

This case is before the court on Defendant’s Motion To Strike or, in the Alternative, To Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs Hutchens and Arman filed their original complaint on April 6, 2009, and their first amended complaint on May 7, 2009. A second amended complaint was filed on behalf of Messrs. Hutchens and Arman and newly added plaintiff Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., on June 11, 2009. In their second amended complaint, plaintiffs allege that remedial actions of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) constitute a taking of property entitling them to just compensation under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Defendant moved to strike the second amended complaint because it has not been signed by properly admitted counsel for Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., as required by RCFC 83.1(a)(3). Defendant moved to dismiss the second amended complaint as to all plaintiffs because it is barred by the applicable statute of limitations, 28 U.S.C. § 2501 (2006), or, pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(6), because it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Argument is deemed unnecessary.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs John F. Hutchens and T.W. Ar-man are pro se litigants responsible for filing the original and first amended complaints— together these two pleadings constitute a 267-page manifesto of factual and legal allegations purporting to establish a compensa-ble Fifth Amendment takings claim. Plaintiff Iron Mountain Mines, Inc. (“IMMI”), is named in the second amended complaint, which condenses plaintiffs’ allegations to eight pages, although plaintiffs have re-alleged substantially the same Fifth Amendment claim pleaded in the original and first amended complaints: that the EPA’s remedial actions at the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund site near Redding, California (the “IMMI Superfund Site”), resulted in a com-[557]*557pensable taking of IMMI’s private property. Defendant’s motion adequately distills the relevant facts into a summary of less than three pages, excluding legal argument. The court’s review of the pleadings confirms the accuracy of defendant’s rendition. Consistent with the case law governing consideration of pro se complainants, set forth in the body of this opinion, the court has indulged plaintiffs with the presumption to favor all facts as well pleaded and to construe the second amended complaint as supporting jurisdiction, except insofar as disputed facts, regarding which the court has considered extra-complaint documents of record. In evaluating the existence of a claim for relief, the court has considered the allegations of the unadorned second amended complaint.

Plaintiffs’ claim is traceable to a lawsuit originally filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California on June 12, 1991 (the “district court lawsuit”), which arose after the EPA’s redress of mining waste at the IMMI Superfund Site. See Def.’s Br. filed July 6, 2009, at 2 (iciting Complaint, United States v. Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., 881 F.Supp. 1432 (E.D.Cal.1995) (No. 1)); First Am. Compl. ¶ 1 (“This matter originated as a petition to reopen a ‘closed’ district court proceeding.”). In that complaint the United States alleged that various defendants, including Mr. Ar-man and IMMI, were liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601-75 (2006) (“CERCLA”), for the EPA’s cleanup costs. See Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., 881 F.Supp. at 1434, 1437. On October 1, 2002, the federal district court held that Mr. Arman and IMMI were liable for the cleanup costs — Mr. Arman as the site operator and IMMI as the owner of the site. Def.’s Br. filed July 6, 2009, at 2 (citing United States v. Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., 881 F.Supp. 1432 (E.D.Cal.1995) (order granting partial summary judgment)). The district court rejected IMMI’s innocent-landowner defense “because IMMI purchased the property with knowledge of — indeed, at least in part, because of — the presence of hazardous materials.” Id. Additionally, the district court rejected Mr. Arman’s innocent-landowner defense “because he is not the ‘owner’ of the facility in need of cleanup.” Id. at 2-3.

Mr. Hutchens moved to intervene pro se in the federal district court lawsuit by filing a “Notice of Joinder” on March 10, 2008. Id. at 3; see also Notice of Joinder of Potentially Responsible Party and Supporting Memorandum, United States v. Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., 881 F.Supp. 1432 (E.D.Cal.1995) (No. 1261). Mr. Hutchens asserted that the EPA’s remedial activities at the IMMI Superfund Site had created a “High Density Sludge” and that “Mr. T.W. Arman and Iron Mountain Mines, Inc. have entered into a joint venture with Mr. John Hutchens and Serenescapes” to recover minerals from the High Density Sludge. Def.’s Br. filed July 6, 2009, at 3 (internal quotation omitted). Mr. Hutchens continued filing pro se papers in the district court lawsuit until the district court on January 2, 2009, “struck his motion (and other filings) and barred Mr. Hutchens from filing additional documents except through properly admitted counsel.”1 Def.’s Br. filed July 6, 2009, at 3 (citing United States v. Iron Mountain Mines, Inc., 881 F.Supp. 1432 (E.D.Cal.1995) (order denying motion to join or intervene)).

FACTS

Messrs. Hutchens and Arman filed their original complaint in this court on April 6, [558]*5582009. Defendant describes the original complaint — consisting of forty-two pages and 197 numbered paragraphs purporting to establish, among various indecipherable or otherwise elusive claims, a taking under the Fifth Amendment — as “so vague, ambiguous, and verbose that the United States could not have reasonably responded to [it].” Def.’s Br. filed July 6, 2009, at 3 n. 1. Prior to any response by defendant, Messrs. Hutchens and Arman filed their first amended complaint — 225 pages and 923 numbered paragraphs — on May 7, 2009.2 Like the original complaint, the first amended complaint alleges a variety of claims that are predicated on the EPA’s remedial action at the IMMI Superfund Site and which, for the purposes of jurisdiction over and review by the United States Court of Federal Claims, reduce to a claim for a compensable taking under the Fifth Amendment.3

This court held an on-the-record status conference on May 26, 2009, to address further proceedings in light of Messrs. Hutch-ens’s and Arman’s May 7, 2009 filings. Pursuant to RCFC 12(e), defendant orally moved for a more definite statement of Messrs. Hutchens and Arman’s claim. The court considered defendant’s concerns about its need for a more focused and coherent expression of the facts relating to a takings claim and concluded that defendant had justified its request. The court ruled that plaintiffs’ voluminous pleading did not comply with RCFC 8(a) and entered an order on May 27, 2009, granting defendant’s oral motion without briefing pursuant to RCFC 7.2(a)(1).4 The court ordered, as follows:

3. By June 15, 2009, plaintiffs shall file a Second Amended Complaint that complies with RCFC 8(a).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 Fed. Cl. 553, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 319, 2009 WL 3232703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutchens-v-united-states-uscfc-2009.