Smith v. United States Department of Agriculture

888 F. Supp. 2d 945, 2012 WL 3689493, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121705
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedAugust 28, 2012
DocketNo. 4:12-cv-362 RP-CFB
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 888 F. Supp. 2d 945 (Smith v. United States Department of Agriculture) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. United States Department of Agriculture, 888 F. Supp. 2d 945, 2012 WL 3689493, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121705 (S.D. Iowa 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

ROBERT W. PRATT, District Judge.

Currently before the Court is Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (“MTD”) filed on [948]*948August 20, 2012. Clerk’s No. 6. Plaintiffs filed a response on August 24, 2012 (“Resistance”). Clerk’s No. 18. Defendants replied on August 27, 2012 (“Reply”). Clerk’s No. 19. The matter is fully submitted.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs challenge Defendants’ decision to close the Decatur County Farm Service Agency (“FSA”) office. See Compl. ¶¶ 19, 21. Plaintiffs are all farmers participating in various farm programs in Decatur County, Iowa. See id. ¶¶ 1-6. Defendant United States Department of Agriculture (the “USDA”) approved the closure of the Decatur County FSA office — which is located in Leon, Iowa — on May 29, 2012. See id. ¶ 31; see also Clerk’s No. 1-1 at 6. In deciding to close this office, the USDA followed the mandate of 7 U.S.C. § 6932a to first consider closing FSA offices with two or fewer permanent full-time employees that are also located within twenty miles of another FSA office. Compl. ¶ 25. Using Euclidean miles, the USDA calculated that the Decatur County FSA office was located “19.99 miles from the nearest FSA office located in Osceola, Iowa.”1 Id. ¶26. Plaintiffs, however, allege that the USDA “used the wrong building in Clarke County to measure the distance between the Decatur County and the Clarke County FSA offices.” Id. ¶35. Due to this mistake, Plaintiffs claim that the calculated distance is shorter by “more than 240 feet, ... [and, therefore,] the Decatur County FSA office is more than 20 Euclidean miles from the Clarke County FSA office.” Id. ¶ 37. Since the USDA incorrectly calculated this distance, Plaintiffs insist that the USDA should remove the Decatur County office from the closure list.2 See id.

Currently, the Decatur County FSA office has only one permanent full-time employee who has been offered an early retirement package. See id. ¶ 42. If she accepts the retirement package, her last day of work would be August 28, 2012. See id. Thus, her potential acceptance of the early retirement package could lead to the closure of this office on August 28, 2012, rather than on the original closing date of “no later than September 28, 2012.” See id.

II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW

Defendants move to dismiss this lawsuit on two grounds: (1) lack of subject matter jurisdiction, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1); and (2) failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). See Defs.’ MTD at 1.

A. Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction

In order for the Court to dismiss a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), the opposing party must successfully challenge the claim “on its face or the factual truthfulness of its averments.” Titus v. Sullivan, 4 F.3d 590, 593 (8th Cir.1993). Facial challenges are limited to analyzing the face of the complaint. Biscanin v. Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., 407 F.3d 905, 907 (8th Cir.2005). Under a facial challenge, each factual allegation concerning jurisdiction is presumed to be true. Titus, 4 F.3d at 593. Thus, the moving party’s motion can be “successful if the plaintiff fails to allege an element necessary for subject matter jurisdiction.” Id. Factual challenges invoke facts other [949]*949than those pled in the complaint. Osborn v. United States, 918 F.2d 724, 729 n. 6 (8th Cir.1990). If a party mounts a factual challenge, “the Court may look outside the pleadings to determine whether jurisdiction exists, and the nonmoving party loses the benefit of favorable inferences from its factual statements.” Dolls, Inc. v. City of Coralville, 425 F.Supp.2d 958, 970 (S.D.Iowa 2006). Here, Defendants appear to assert a facial challenge.

B. Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief Can Be Granted

To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, a complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). In reviewing a complaint, a court must “accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint,” and must draw “all reasonable inferences ... in favor of the plaintiff.” Schaaf v. Residential Funding Corp., 517 F.3d 544, 549 (8th Cir.2008) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555-56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

A viable complaint must include “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiffs obligation to provide the “grounds” of his “entitle[ment] to relief’ requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.

Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. “The plausibility standard requires a plaintiff to show at the pleading stage that success on the merits is more than a ‘sheer possibility.’ It is not, however, a ‘probability requirement.’ ” Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 588 F.3d 585, 594 (8th Cir.2009) (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937).

The Supreme Court, in Iqbal, described a “two-pronged approach” for evaluating complaints challenged under Rule 12(b)(6). Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937. First, a court should divide the allegations between factual and legal allegations; factual allegations should be accepted as true, but legal allegations should be disregarded. Id. Second, the factual allegations must be parsed for facial plausibility. Id.

A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.... Where a complaint pleads facts that are “merely consistent with” a defendant’s liability, it “stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of ‘entitlement to relief.’ ”

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888 F. Supp. 2d 945, 2012 WL 3689493, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-united-states-department-of-agriculture-iasd-2012.