Modern, Inc. v. Florida, Department of Transportation

444 F. Supp. 2d 1234
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 15, 2006
Docket3:03-cv-00718
StatusPublished

This text of 444 F. Supp. 2d 1234 (Modern, Inc. v. Florida, Department of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Modern, Inc. v. Florida, Department of Transportation, 444 F. Supp. 2d 1234 (M.D. Fla. 2006).

Opinion

ORDER

PRESNELL, District Judge

This matter comes before the Court on the motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment (Doc. 215) filed by Defendant United States Fish & Wildlife Service (“Fish & Wildlife”), the response (Doc. 243) filed by the Plaintiffs, Modern, Inc. (“Modern”) and First Omni Service Corp. (“First Omni”), and the reply (Doc. 276) filed by Fish & Wildlife.

I. Background

The Plaintiffs — henceforth referred to as “Modern” for ease of reference — and Defendants Fish & Wildlife and St. Johns River Water Management District (“St. Johns”) 'own or manage real estate in the area of the intersection of Interstate 95 (“1-95”) and State Road 50 (“S.R.50”) near Titusville. Modern owns several parcels (collectively, the “Property”) that are located, in general terms, adjacent to 1-95 north of the intersection. (Doc. 292). According to Modern, the three tracts it owns total approximately 142.5 acres of land. (Doc. 71 at 3). The approximately 6,200-acre St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge (the “Refuge”) is located to the west and north of the Property 1 . (Doc. 251 at 4). The federally owned Refuge is managed by Fish & Wildlife. (Doc. 298 at 2). St. Johns owns and manages two parcels of conservation land — the Seminole Ranch and the Canaveral Marsh — which abut the Refuge on portions of its western and southern boundaries, respectively. (Doc. 298 at 2-3).

The Property and the Refuge were, at one time, part of the Titusville Fruit and Farm Lands Subdivision (“Titusville Farms”), which was platted in the early 1900s. 2 (Doc. 289 at 3). The natural sheet flow of water on the Titusville Farms was generally from the northeast to the southwest, toward the St. Johns River, which passes near the southwest corner of the Refuge. (Doc. 289-4 at 2) Over the years various canals were excavated on the Ti-tusville Farms land to redirect the natural flow of surface water and drain it more efficiently. Modern refers to these canals as the “Drainage System.” 3 (Doc. 289 at 4).

*1238 In the 1970s, Fish & Wildlife began acquiring portions of Titusville Farms, creating the Refuge in an (ultimately unsuccessful) effort to save the endangered Dusky Seaside Sparrow. (Doc. 289 at 7). Around the same time, St. Johns began acquiring property in and around Titusville Farms to protect the St. Johns River. (Doc. 289 at 8). Over time, both Fish & Wildlife and St. Johns have taken steps such as filling in canals — or allowing others to fill them in — that have reduced the efficiency of the drainage on the land they manage and own, respectively. (Doc. 289 at 10-12).

The record is not entirely clear, but it appears that Modern acquired the Property via a series of transactions in the 1990s. (Doc. 71 at 19-82). In 1996, Modern began complaining to St. Johns of flooding, allegedly caused by restriction and plugging of canals in and around the Refuge. (Doc. 292). After a series of meetings between Modern and Brevard County, the Florida Department of Transportation, and Fish & Wildlife, a deal was worked out to have some canals that bordered the Refuge altered in an effort to eliminate the flooding of the Property. (Doc. 292-4 at 2).

In February 1997, Modern performed what it described as maintenance of some •ditches on and near the Property in an attempt to alleviate the flooding. (Doc. 289 at 14). Shortly thereafter, Fish & Wildlife discovered that hundreds of acres of Refuge wetlands north of the intersection of S.R. 50 and 1-95 had begun drying up. (Doc. 292-5 at 2). St. Johns concluded that Modern’s ditch work went far beyond mere “maintenance” and had resulted in the draining. (Doc. 292-6 at 2-3). St. Johns authorized Fish & Wildlife to construct two weirs to stop the draining and filed an administrative complaint seeking to have Modern undo the ditch work and restore the Refuge wetlands. (Doc. 292-6 at 3). Modern fought these measures, but in 2001 the First District Court of Appeal sided with St. Johns, upholding its determinations. 4 (Doc. 292-6 at 3).

Modern had filed suit in state court in 1997, seeking damages for the flooding under a number of theories. (Doc. 71 at 8). The state court dismissed the complaint and held the suit in abeyance until Modern exhausted its administrative remedies. (Doc. 71 at 8). After the decision of the First District Court of Appeals, Modern reinstituted its damages suit, which was subsequently removed to this Court. (Doc. 1). Modern, now proceeding under its Fourth Amended Complaint, makes inverse condemnation claims against St. Johns (Count I) and FDOT (Count II), requests a declaratory judgment as to its drainage easement rights in the land controlled by those defendants (Count III), 5 seeks to quiet title under federal law (28 U.S.C. § 2409a) against Fish & Wildlife (Count IV), and finally, in the alternative, demands permanent injunctive relief to prevent St. Johns and FDOT from interfering with the operation of the drainage ditches and requiring them to abate the flooding of the Property (Count V). (Doc. 71). In Count IV — the only Count targeting Fish & Wildlife directly — Modern seeks to have this Court adjudicate the existence, location, scope and extent of its drainage easements within the Refuge, as well as declaring that Fish & Wildlife has interfered with those easements. (Doc. 71 at 14).

*1239 II. Standards

A party is entitled to summary judgment when the party can show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Which facts are material depends on the substantive law applicable to the case. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The moving party bears the burden of showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists. Clark v. Coats & Clark, Inc., 929 F.2d 604, 608 (11th Cir.1991).

When a party moving for summary judgment points out an absence of evidence on a dispositive issue for which the non-moving party bears the burden of proof at trial, the nonmoving party must “go beyond the pleadings and by [his] own affidavits, or by the depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324-25, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (internal quotations and citation omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
444 F. Supp. 2d 1234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/modern-inc-v-florida-department-of-transportation-flmd-2006.