The Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, bring this action seeking damages and injunctive relief for injuries resulting from the operation of an alleged public nuisance at Lorton, Virginia. Plaintiff alleges that (1) the District of Columbia and certain of its officials have failed to maintain and operate the Lorton Reformatory in a manner required by law; (2) that this improper maintenance causes the facility to be a public nuisance; and (3) that the Attorney General has no authority to designate as a suitable plp.ce of confinement, a facility which is a public nuisance. Defendants include the District of Columbia and certain of its officials, the United States of America and the Attorney General of the United States. The matter is before the Court on defendants’ motion to dismiss, plaintiff’s response thereto, and argument of counsel.
The Lorton Complex itself is a prison facility maintained and operated by the District of Columbia. The complex is situated on approximately 3000 acres of land located in Fairfax County, Virginia. The United States retains legal title to the land upon which the prison is located having acquired the land in several parcels beginning in 1910. Persons convicted in the courts of the District of Columbia for any offense are committed to the custody of the Attorney General whose responsibility is to select a place of confinement for the prisoner. D.C.Code § 24-425 (1973 ed.). The Lorton Complex is one such place of confinement.
Count I of the complaint alleges that due to the number and increasing frequency of escapes, riots and disturbances, the Lorton Complex constitutes a public nuisance. Plaintiff alleges numerous escapes, fires, and kidnappings to support this claim. The breaches of security and the resulting threat to the health and safety of the surrounding community allegedly stems from the negligent conduct of the District of Columbia defendants in maintaining the facility. The Lorton Complex, so it is argued, is a public nuisance, and the Attorney General must be enjoined from designating it as a suitable place of confinement.
Count II contends that the operation of the Lorton Complex deprives the inhabitants of Fairfax County of several rights secured under the Constitution of the United States. Plaintiff further asserts in Count III that water and waste water treatment plants, the coal dust run-off from the coal-fired boilers and gases emitted from the Lorton Complex has and continues to pollute the air and waters of Fairfax County in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq., 4332(C)(i), and the Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., and the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1857 et seq. Plaintiff, in Count IV, seeks compensation for services provided by the county to the Lorton Complex. All defendants maintain that sovereign immunity precludes this action, that the Court does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter or in the alternative, that plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and that plaintiffs lack standing to maintain this suit.
Defendants’ position is that sovereign immunity precludes this action with regard to the District of Columbia- and the named defendants. Despite recurring criticism
1
it remains the law that the sovereign need not be subjected
Plaintiff does not challenge the constitutionality of the statutes under which the Attorney General confines persons to Lorton,
2
or the statute under which the District of Columbia maintains and operates the facility.
3
Rather, plaintiff asserts that the Lorton Complex is being maintained in a manner not authorized by statute and one which is constitutionally void. Neither title to the property nor the right to locate a prison on that property is challenged. Cf.
Ely v. Velde,
This case, then, is unlike
Ferris
v.
Wilbur,
There is nothing new about judicial entertainment of suits which charge that federal officials are acting outside of, or in conflict with, the responsibilities laid upon them by the Congress or the Constitution. Whether such charges are true, and, if so, what remedial action the court should or may direct, are questions partaking of the merits, and not of jurisdiction to explore the merits.
If, after trial, it be found that appellees do in fact have a responsibility for the property in their care which they are not recognizing adequately, the court’s power, at the least, to declare that responsibility and to define that default is not dissipated solely by the circumstance that legal title to the property is in the United States. To hold otherwise would be to say that sovereign immunity forecloses any judicial inquiry whatsoever into the custodianship by a federal official of federal property. There is no magic about real estate, or its ownership by the United States, which hedges it guardians about with an immunity not available to other executants of public policies committed to their care by the Congress.
Knox Hill Tenant Council v. Washington,
The District of Columbia, as have other municipalities, has been unable to successfully maintain refuge behind the shield of sovereign immunity to avoid liability for maintaining an alleged public nuisance.
George Washington Inn v. Consolidated Engineering Co.,
64 U.S. App.D.C. 138,
Jurisdiction over the claim contained in Count III is arguably attained
Congress is constitutionally authorized to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over all places purchased from or ceded by a particular state with the consent of that state’s legislature. U.S.Const. art. 1, § 8, cl. 17.
9
Land so acquired is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.
Paul v. United States,
The initial difficulty in applying the preceding analysis to the instant case is that the federal government does not have exclusive jurisdiction over all the land in question. When a state refuses to consent to federal acquisition of territory, it retains jurisdiction over the land consistent with the governmental purposes for which the property was acquired.
Paul v. United States,
Secondly, the
Stokes
case mandates that only those state laws in effect at the time of transfer of jurisdiction continue in effect. Subsequent developments in state law are not part of the laws of the ceded areas unless Congress takes action to keep them current.
Stokes v. Adair,
This Court finds no reason in law or logic that compels the application of state substantive standards to this case and deem that law to be federal for purposes of § 1331(a) jurisdiction. An action to abate a public nuisance is essentially one that arises under local law.
There is no question but that the Court has power to adjudicate a state claim related to a substantial federal claim in the same suit.
United Mine Workers v. Gibbs,
The Board of Supervisors also attempts to redress the alleged deprivation of the constitutional rights of the inhabitants of Fairfax County. The gist of this count is that various constitutional rights of local residents are impaired by the operation of the Lorton Complex.
12
Plaintiff is frank to concede that it has no proprietary interest in the constitutional rights of the residents of Fairfax County. Consequently plaintiff does not have a sufficient stake in this aspect of the suit to insure the requisite adversity in presenting this action. Cf.
Sierra Club v. Morton,
The concept of
parens patriae
has its historical origins in the English constitutional system and the power of the King as sovereign.
Hawaii
v.
Standard Oil Co.,
The only court to rule directly on this issue squarely held that a political subdivision’s lack of sovereignty precluded its ability to act as
parens patriae. In re Multidistrict Vehicle Air Pollution M.D.L. No. 31,
Even if the Board of Supervisors could properly act as
parens patriae
in some instances, it could not do so to redress the constitutional torts alleged in the instant case. If the Lorton Complex is in fact operating so as to deprive Fairfax County residents of certain constitutional rights, the injury would be personal to those residents so effected rather than to any quasi-sovereign interest of the county itself. While the Board of Supervisors is statutorily empowered to abate public nuisances, it is not authorized to redress injuries of a personal nature inflicted upon its residents.
14
Were it otherwise, the county would be forced to run the risk of discriminating between residents in decid
Count IV of the complaint relates to the police, fire and rescue services which Fairfax County has provided the Lorton Complex. The County seeks recovery of the value of such services. Jurisdiction over this claim with regard to the federal defendants is claimed under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2).
15
The Tucker Act is only applicable to actions seeking money damages.
Richardson v. Morris,
An appropriate order will issue.
Notes
. E. g., K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise ch. 27 (Supp. 1965); Cramton, Nonstatutory Review of Federal Administrative Action: The Need for Statutory Reform of Sovereign Immunity; Subject Matter Jurisdiction, and Parties Defendant, 68 Mich.L.Rev. 389 (1970); Scalia, Sovereign Immunity and Nonstatutory Review of Federal Administrative Action: Some Conclusions from the Public-Lands Cases, 68 Mich.L.Rev. 867 (1970); Currie, The Federal Courts and the American Law Institute (pt. II), 36 U.Chi.L.Rev. 268 (1969); Byse Proposed Reforms in Federal ‘Nonstatutory’ Judicial Review: Sovereign Immunity, Indispensable Parties Mandamus, 75 Harv.L.Rev. 1479 (1962).
. D.C.Code § 24-425 (1973 ed.) provides:
All prisoners convicted in the District of Columbia for any offense, including violations of municipal regulations and ordinances and Acts of Congress in the nature of municipal regulations and ordinances, shall be committed, for their terms of imprisonment, and to such types of institutions as the court may direct, to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States or his authorized representative, who shall designate the places of confinements where the sentences of all such persons shall be served. The Attorney General may designate any available, suitable, and appropriate institutions, whether maintained by the District of Columbia Government, the federal government, or otherwise, or whether within or without the District of Columbia. The Attorney General is also authorized to order the transfer of any such person from one institution to another if, in his judgment, it shall be for the well-being of the prisoner or relieve overcrowding or unhealthful conditions in the institution where such prisoner is confined, or for other reasons.
Plaintiff does contend that the Attorney General is acting beyond the authority conferred by the statute in designating a prison run in such a manner as to constitute a public nuisance.
. D.C.Code § 24-442 (1973 ed.) provides:
Said Department of Corrections under the general direction and supervision of the Commissioner of the District of Columbia shall have charge of the management and regulation of the Workhouse at Occoquan in the State of Virginia, the Reformatory at Lorton in the State of Virginia, ’and the Washington'Asylum ánd Jail, and be responsible for the safekeeping, care, protection, instruction, and discipline of all persons committed to such institutions. The District of Columbia Council shall have power to promulgate rules and regulations for the government of such institutions and the Department of Corrections with the approval of the Commissioner shall have power to establish and conduct industries, farms, and other activities, to classify the inmates, and to provide for their proper treatment, care, rehabilitation, and reformation.
The cost of maintaining the Lorton facility lies with the District of Columbia. D.C.Code § 24-422 (1973 ed.). The United States, in fact, is entitled to reimbursement for' funds expended on the Lorton Complex. D.C.Code § 24-423 (1973 ed.).
. 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a) provides:
The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions wherein the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $10,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and arises under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.
. 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b) and 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2(b) respectively. Both statutes require a plaintiff to give the Environmental Protection Agency sixty days notice prior to instituting a citizens’ suit.
. The Court also found that “[t]he considerable interests involved in the purity of interstate waters would seem to put beyond question the jurisdictional amount provided in § 1331(a).”
Illinois v. City of Milwaukee,
. Plaintiff also seeks to enjoin the expenditure of federal funds on Lorton until an environmental impact statement is filed pursuant to § 102(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); 42 U.S.C. § 4332(C). While the retroactive application of § 102(C) remains an unresolved issue, there is undoubtedly a state of progress where federal action is so complete as to render § 102(C) of NEPA inapplicable.
Arlington Coalition on Transportation v. Volpe,
. The Board of Supervisors allege that the defendants are acting beyond their statutory authority. The statutes in this instance are provisions of the Code of the District of Columbia. 28 U.S.C. § 1363 precludes reliance on these codes sections as a source of federal question jurisdiction. That section provides “For the purposes of this chapter, references to laws of the United States or Acts of Congress do not include laws applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia.”
. Article I, § 8, cl. 17 of the Constitution of the United States provides:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings.
. Virginia had earlier consented to exclusive federal jurisdiction over lands acquired by the United States under Art. I, § 8, cl. 17 of the Constitution. See Acts of Assembly 1901-1902, ch. 484, pp. 565-66 as amended in Acts of Assembly 1912, ch. 260, p. 563; Acts of Assembly 1916, ch. 471, p. 793 and Acts of Assembly 1918, ch. 382, p. 568. This arrangement gave way to a reservation of concurrent jurisdiction in the Code of Virginia 1919, § 19. This latter Code section, however, was made specifically inapplicable to territory ceded under the earlier statutes. As two parcels of the Lorton Complex were acquired prior to 1919 it is arguable that the federal government retains exclusive jurisdiction over these parcels. The United States, however, is merely the titleholder to this land. The powers of government over the area are exercised by the district of Columbia. See D.C.Code § 24-442 (1973 ed.) quoted in full supra note 3. See also Act of March 9, 1909, ch. 250, 35 Stat. 717-18 and Act of August 5, 1909, ch. 7, 36 Stat. 122. Hence, there is no need to invoke the federalized state law concept as there exists an applicable body of law arising from the District of Columbia.
. Plaintiff in its memorandum asserts that jurisdiction may be attained pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, (APA) 5 U.S.C. § 706. An overwhelming number of courts have held that the APA does not extend jurisdiction to cases not otherwise within the competency of the district court. See, e. g.,
Getty Oil Co. v. Ruckelshaus,
. In its Complaint, plaintiff asserts:
Defendant’s acts or failure to act, and the public nuisance caused thereby, have deprived the inhabitants of Fairfax County of rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States of America, to wit:
a. Their freedom to associate has been severely curtailed;
b. Their freedom to travel has been severely restricted;
c. Their right to remain secure in and enjoy the possession and benefits of their homes has been abridged;
d. Their right to privacy has been invaded;
e. Their right to be free in their homes from unreasonable searches has been frequently violated.
. Virginia Constitution, Art. VII § 2 provides in pertinent part:
The General Assembly shall provide by general law for the organization, government, powers, change of boundaries, consolidation, and dissolution of counties, cities, towns, and regional governments. The General Assembly may also provide by general law optional plans of government for counties, cities, or towns to be effective if approved by a majority vote of the qualified voters voting on any such plan in any such county, city or town.
. Va.Code § 15.1-522 (1975 Supp.) confers upon the Board of Supervisors the same powers and authority as those vested in the councils of cities and towns. These latter bodies are authorized to “prevent injury or annoyance from anything dangerous, offensive or unhealthy and cause any nuisance to be abated;” Va.Code § 15.1-14(5) (1975 Supp.). To be considered public a nuisance must effect an interest common to the general public rather than peculiar to one individual. See generally, W. Prosser, The Law of Torts § 88 (4th ed. 1971). A wrong to a specific individual, however, may be remedied by an action instituted by that individual.
. 28 U.S.C. § 1346 provides in pertinent part: (a) The district courts shall have original jurisdiction, concurrent with the Court of Claims, of: .
(2) Any other civil action or claim against the United States, not exceeding $10,000 in amount, founded either upon the Constitution, or any Act of Congress, or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases not sounding in tort.
Having resolved plaintiffs constitutional claims on the basis of standing this Court expresses no opinion as to whether those claims are cognizable under the Tucker Act.
