Richard Warner v. City of Marathon

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 27, 2025
Docket24-10901
StatusUnpublished

This text of Richard Warner v. City of Marathon (Richard Warner v. City of Marathon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richard Warner v. City of Marathon, (11th Cir. 2025).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 1 of 17

[DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 24-10901 ____________________

RICHARD E. WARNER, as Co-Personal Representatives of the Estate of Joseph Ardolino II, JOHN W. PARENTE, as Co-Personal Representatives of the Estate of Joseph Ardolino II, JOSEPH E. ARDOLINO, individually, Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus CITY OF MARATHON, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, MICHAEL CINQUE, individually and as a City of Marathon Official, RALPH LUCIGNANO, USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 2 of 17

2 Opinion of the Court 24-10901

individually and as a City of Marathon Official, THE STUFFED PIG, INC., a Florida corporation, CSV, INCORPORATED, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 4:14-cv-10071-JLK ____________________

Before ROSENBAUM, BRANCH, and KIDD, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Plaintiffs, the Estate of Joseph Ardolino II and Joseph Ardo- lino ( Joseph Ardolino II’s son), appeal the denial of their motion to reopen their action and amend their complaint against the City of Marathon under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Under our mandate, the district court dismissed Plaintiffs’ case without prejudice in 2018. See Warner v. City of Marathon, 718 F. App’x 834, 838 (11th Cir. 2017) (per curiam). At the time, the Supreme Court’s decision in Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City dictated that Plaintiffs USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 3 of 17

24-10901 Opinion of the Court 3

could not pursue their takings claim in federal court until they first litigated their case in state court. 473 U.S. 172, 194–95 (1985). But in 2005, the Supreme Court also decided San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City and County of San Francisco, 545 U.S. 323 (2005). There, the Court held that federal courts “are not free to disregard the full- faith-and-credit statute [28 U.S.C. § 1738] solely to preserve the availability of a federal forum” for takings claims. Id. at 347–48. So a state court’s judgment on a takings claim has “preclusive effect” in later federal suits on that claim. See id. at 347. In plain English, federal courts can’t hear a takings claim if a Plaintiff already lost on that claim in state court. Williamson County and San Remo, together, created “[t]he San Remo preclusion trap,” —a “Catch-22.” Knick v. Twp. of Scott, 588 U.S. 180, 184–85 (2019). A takings plaintiff couldn’t “go to federal court without going to state court first; but if he [went] to state court and los[t], his claim [would] be barred in federal court.” Id. So the Supreme Court overruled Williamson County in its 2019 de- cision Knick v. Township of Scott. Id. at 185, 206. But it left San Remo in place. See id. at 185, 204, 206. Knick issued as the parties litigated their claim in state court. But rather than seek to remove the case back to federal court after Knick, Plaintiffs pursued their case fully in state court. And they lost. Now, several years later, we are precluded from entertaining their takings claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1738. So we conclude the dis- trict court didn’t abuse its discretion when it denied Plaintiffs’ USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 4 of 17

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motion to reopen their case and amend their complaint, and we affirm its order. I. BACKGROUND In August of 2014, Plaintiffs sued the City of Marathon and several co-defendants in Florida state court under multiple causes of action. See Warner, 718 F. App’x at 836. The City of Marathon removed the case to federal court. Id. Proceeding in federal court, Plaintiffs’ operative complaint alleged, as relevant, that through the City’s enforcement of zoning regulations, the City violated Plain- tiffs’ rights under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Id. at 837. The district court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, and Plaintiffs appealed. Id. On December 8, 2017, we affirmed the dismissal of the complaint except as to Plaintiffs’ takings claim. Id. at 840. As to the takings claim, we vacated the district court’s judg- ment with instructions to dismiss the claim without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Id. at 838. We explained that under Williamson County, a federal court couldn’t “review the claim until the plaintiffs have been denied relief by a Florida court.” Warner, 718 F. App’x at 838. On February 5, 2018, the district court dismissed the takings claim without prejudice for lack of subject- matter jurisdiction.1 The parties then litigated the takings claim in state court, and the state trial court granted summary judgment to the City of

1 The district court docketed the order the next day, on February 6, 2018. USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 5 of 17

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Marathon on March 25, 2022. On January 4, 2023, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the grant of summary judgment, explaining that “the fact that a regulation causes a diminution in the property value alone does not establish a taking.” See Warner v. City of Marathon, 357 So. 3d 188 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2023) (per curiam) (citing Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 131 (1978)). The Florida Supreme Court denied a petition for review on May 18, 2023. Warner v. City of Marathon, No. SC2023- 0433, 2023 WL 3521698 (Fla. May 18, 2023). While Plaintiffs litigated their claim in state court, on June 21, 2019, the Supreme Court overruled Williamson County in Knick, 588 U.S. at 185, 206. After Knick, no longer must takings plaintiffs first seek relief in state court before filing a claim directly in federal court. Id. The Supreme Court highlighted that under its decision in San Remo, 545 U.S. 323, “a state court’s resolution of a claim for just compensation under state law generally has preclusive effect in any subsequent federal suit.” Knick, 588 U.S. 184. So paired with Williamson County—which required plaintiffs to proceed in state court first—San Remo created “a Catch-22” for a takings plaintiff, where he could never receive relief in federal court. Id. at 184. Rec- ognizing this problem, the Court overruled Williamson County’s state-litigation requirement, without disturbing San Remo. See id. at 185, 204, 206. On June 20, 2023, a little over thirty days after the Florida Supreme Court’s denial of review in their case, Plaintiffs moved in federal court to reopen their case and amend their complaint. The USCA11 Case: 24-10901 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 05/27/2025 Page: 6 of 17

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district court denied that motion on December 14, 2023, interpret- ing the motion to reopen the case to be a motion under

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Richard Warner v. City of Marathon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richard-warner-v-city-of-marathon-ca11-2025.