Russell v. City of Kansas City, Kan.

690 F. Supp. 947, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8543, 1988 WL 81395
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedAugust 3, 1988
DocketCiv. A. 86-2132
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 690 F. Supp. 947 (Russell v. City of Kansas City, Kan.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Russell v. City of Kansas City, Kan., 690 F. Supp. 947, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8543, 1988 WL 81395 (D. Kan. 1988).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

EARL E. O’CONNOR, Chief Judge.

This action arises from a local zoning dispute in Kansas City, Kansas. On three separate occasions, plaintiff submitted zoning proposals to the city, seeking to rezone his residential property for office and professional use. Defendant city, through its city eouncilmen and planning and zoning staff, denied plaintiff’s zoning petitions. Defendant’s denials of plaintiff’s zoning petitions were upheld by the Wyandotte County Court. 1 Plaintiff claims that defendant’s zoning decisions and its redevelopment plans for downtown Kansas City, Kansas violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. 2 Additionally, plaintiff claims that defendant’s commercial operation of Memorial Hall violates the Civil Rights Act. According to plaintiff, defendant’s actions have resulted in plaintiff’s loss of business income, a reduction in the development value of his property, and lost profits.

This matter is before the court on plaintiff’s motion to enforce a settlement agreement, defendant city’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s antitrust claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The court has determined that oral argument would not be of material assistance in the resolution of this matter. D.Kan.Rule 206(d). For the reasons discussed below, plaintiff’s motion will be denied, defendant’s motion to dismiss will be denied, and defendant’s motion for summary judgment will be granted.

Plaintiffs Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement

No settlement agreement between the parties exists. At most, a proposed settlement agreement was at one time being negotiated and considered, but for reasons unknown to the court, a final agreement was never consummated. Consequently, the court cannot enforce a nonexistent settlement agreement, nor can it order the parties to continue settlement negotiations which have previously been discontinued. Plaintiff’s motion must therefore be denied.

Defendant City’s Motion to Dismiss

[I] Defendant moves the court to dismiss plaintiff’s antitrust claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. In support of its motion, defendant claims that plaintiff has failed to plead a “nexus” between defendant’s alleged illegal conduct and interstate commerce (i.e., that defendant’s alleged illegal conduct has a “substantial effect” on interstate commerce), which is a jurisdictional requirement for plaintiff’s Sherman Act claim. Plaintiff’s complaint does not allege a connection between defendant’s zoning decisions and interstate commerce. Nevertheless, plaintiff’s response to defendant’s motion to dismiss alleges that defendant’s zoning decisions have a substantial effect on interstate commerce because the redevelopment spawned by the defendant’s zoning decisions is funded by the interstate sale of revenue bonds. The following analysis is therefore based on the assumption that plaintiff would eventually amend his complaint to allege this nexus between defendant’s challenged activities and interstate commerce.

“The antitrust laws are concerned primarily with the integrity of interstate mar *950 kets.” Construction Aggregate Transport, Inc. v. Florida Rock Industries, Inc., 710 F.2d 752, 767 n. 31 (11th Cir.1983). Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, prohibits every contract, combination or conspiracy “in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States____” 15 U.S.C. § 1; Income Realty Mortgage, Inc. v. Denver Board of Realtors, 578 F.2d 1326, 1328 (10th Cir.1978). The Sherman Act’s jurisdictional reach is thus “keyed directly to effects on interstate markets____” Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 419 U.S. 186, 194, 95 S.Ct. 392, 398, 42 L.Ed.2d 378 (1974). As the United States Supreme Court explained in McLain v. Real Estate Board of New Orleans, 444 U.S. 232, 100 S.Ct. 502, 62 L.Ed.2d 441 (1979):

Although the cases demonstrate the breadth of Sherman Act prohibitions, jurisdiction may not be invoked under that statute unless the relevant aspect of interstate commerce is identified; it is not sufficient merely to rely on identification of a relevant local activity and to presume an interrelationship with some unspecified aspect of interstate commerce. To establish jurisdiction a plaintiff must allege the critical relationship in the pleadings and if these allegations are controverted must proceed to demonstrate by submission of evidence beyond the pleadings either that the defendants’ activity is itself in interstate commerce, or if it is local in nature, that it has an effect on some other appreciable activity demonstrably in interstate commerce.

Id. at 242, 100 S.Ct. at 509. Therefore, “[ajbsent an adequate showing by the plaintiff that the defendants’ [alleged] conspiracy will result ‘in restraining of trade or commerce among the several States’ ..., the plaintiff’s claim must be dismissed.” Construction Aggregate, 710 F.2d at 766. Dismissal should not occur, however, unless plaintiff has had “ ‘ample opportunity for discovery’ ” and “ ‘unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.’ ” Crane v. Intermountain Health Care, Inc., 637 F.2d 715, 723 (10th Cir.1980) (quoting Hospital Building Co. v. Trustees of Rex Hospital, 425 U.S. 738, 746, 96 S.Ct. 1848, 1853, 48 L.Ed.2d 338 (1976) and McLain, 444 U.S. at 246, 100 S.Ct. at 511).

The parties agree that defendant’s zoning activities are local in nature; therefore, plaintiff must establish that defendant’s activities have a substantial effect on interstate commerce to meet the jurisdictional requirement of the Sherman Act.

“[Substantiality of effect ... is to be viewed on a case-by-case, practical economic basis, from the perspective of whether the local activity has a significant impact on competition in commerce and whether the commerce so affected is substantial in volume.” ... It is not relevant to the purpose of regulating anticompetitive conduct that the conduct affect the net volume of interstate trade, nor is it necessary to the exercise of congressional power under the Commerce Clause. What is relevant is the presence in interstate commerce of transactions that, as a result of the anticompetitive conduct, are “substantially” different from the transactions that would otherwise have occurred.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
690 F. Supp. 947, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8543, 1988 WL 81395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/russell-v-city-of-kansas-city-kan-ksd-1988.