Nittany Outdoor Advertising, LLC v. College Township

179 F. Supp. 3d 436, 2016 WL 1393400, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47573
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 8, 2016
DocketNo. 4:12-cv-00672
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 179 F. Supp. 3d 436 (Nittany Outdoor Advertising, LLC v. College Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nittany Outdoor Advertising, LLC v. College Township, 179 F. Supp. 3d 436, 2016 WL 1393400, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47573 (M.D. Pa. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

Matthew W. Brann, United States District Judge

This case presents fascinating constitutional questions as to the application of the First Amendment to municipally approved outdoor advertisements. However, the two motions presently under consideration are, as a matter of procedure, untimely. They must therefore be denied.

I. BACKGROUND

The fundamental dispute in the instant suit arose when Defendant College Township, located in Centre County, Pennsylvania, denied a request by Plaintiff Nittany Outdoor Advertising, LLC, to post billboard messages written by co-Plaintiff Stephanas Ministries.1 On May 20, 2014, this Court granted in part and denied in part Plaintiffs’ Motions for Partial Summary Judgment and Permanent Injunctive Relief.2

By that point in time, Defendant had amended its sign ordinance, which required the Court to distinguish between pre-and post-amendment claims brought by the Plaintiffs.3 The lawsuit included claims based upon the First Amendment to Constitution of the United States as well as certain provisions of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.4 Primarily at issue was whether the contested ordinance disfavored billboards and noncommercial messages by placing restrictions on certain sign specifications, such as area, height, and setback.5

In evaluating Plaintiffs’ First Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, this Court ultimately held that Plaintiffs were -without standing to pursue their pre-amendment claims.6 Moreover, the Court held, reaching the merits, that Plaintiffs were not entitled to summary judgment as to their substantive challenges to the amended ordinance.7 However, the Court agreed with Plaintiffs that Defendant’s permit requirement and variance procedure were unconstitutional to the extent that they vested certain of Defendant’s officials with unbridled discretion.8

[438]*438Critical to the instant Motions, the Court’s prior holding that Plaintiffs were not entitled summary judgment on their amended ordinance claims was based on Plaintiffs’ failure to show “that the amended Ordinance’s regulation of billboards ...and freestanding signs...is content-based and favors noncommercial over commercial speech.”9 The Court arrived at that conclusion by relying on then-prevailing law of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, including the decision Rappa v. New Castle County.10 In Rappa, the Third Circuit wrote that disparate treatment of on-premises and off-premises signs “is not content based” because “the onsite exception does not preclude any particular message from being voiced in any place.”11

Over one year later, on June 18, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona.12 The Reed Court deemed unconstitutional a local sign code that “ideritifie[d] various categories of signs based on the type of information they convey” and then “subjected each category to different restrictions.”13

On August 4, 2015, nearly two months after the Reed decision was handed down, Plaintiffs in this case filed a Motion to Revise this Court’s May 20, 2014 summary judgment decision pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b).14 The Motion to Revise was filed four hundred and forty-one days after the Court issued its May 20, 2014 Order. In their Motion to Revise, Plaintiffs specifically requested that, in light of Reed, the Court reconsider the portion of its summary judgment decision holding that the amended ordinance was a constitutional, content-neutral speech restriction.15 In conjunction with their Motion to Revise, Plaintiffs also filed a Second Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, requesting that judgment be entered in them favor as to-their amended ordinance claims.16

In response, Defendant primarily contends that, as a threshold issue, Plaintiffs’ two motions are untimely. Specifically, Defendant argues that Local Rule 7.10— which provides that “any motion for reconsideration or re-argument must be.. .filed within fourteen (14) days after the entry of the Order of concern”—bars the Motion to Revise.17 In addition, Defendant suggests that Plaintiffs’ Second Motion for Partial Summary Judgment should also be rejected, as the parties cannot relitigate decided summary judgment issues absent the Court granting Plaintiffs’ Motion to Revise.18

Defendant is correct. Though the Court considers it less than ideal to refuse the opportunity to contribute to such an intriguing constitutional problem, a federal court’s authority is limited to only those cases or controversies properly before it. As Defendant rightly contends, Plaintiffs have failed- to file the instant motions in a timely fashion and’ simultaneously have neglected to provide any justification for that tardiness. In accordance with the following [439]*439reasoning, Plaintiffs motions are both denied.

II. LAW

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), upon which Plaintiffs base their Motion to Revise, states in pertinent part as follows:

[A]ny order or other decision, however designated, that adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of fewer than all the parties does not end the action as to any of the claims or parties and may be revised at any time before the entry of a judgment adjudicating all the claims and all the parties’ rights and liabilities.

When disposing of motions to reconsider or revise brought pursuant to Rule 54(b), “[a] [cjourt will amend a prior order only where a different outcome is justified by: (1) an intervening change in law; (2) the availability of new evidence not previously available; or (3) a need to correct a clear error of law or manifest injustice.”19

Importantly, however, Middle District of Pennsylvania Local Rule 7.10 (“Motions for Reconsideration”) states as follows:, -

Any motion for reconsideration or rear-gument must be accompanied by a supporting brief and filed within fourteen (14) days after the entry of the order concerned. This rule is not applicable to a motion to alter or amend a judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59.

Local Rule 7.10 applies to motions for reconsideration brought pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 54(b) or 60(b). It specifically excepts those brought pursuant to Rule 59 because Rule 59 already contains a twenty-eight day time limitation.

“[Djistrict courts may not disregard local procedural rules without sound justification for doing so.”20

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Bluebook (online)
179 F. Supp. 3d 436, 2016 WL 1393400, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47573, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nittany-outdoor-advertising-llc-v-college-township-pamd-2016.