DAINGERFIELD ISLAND PROTECTIVE SOCIETY, et al., Appellants, v. Bruce BABBITT, Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior, et al., Appellees.
No. 93-5218.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued Oct. 7, 1994. Decided Nov. 22, 1994. As Amended Nov. 22, 1994.
Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing In Banc Denied Feb. 8, 1995.
40 F.3d 442
Mark E. Nagle, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, DC, argued the cause for appellees. On brief for the government appellees were Eric H. Holder, Jr., U.S. Atty., and John D. Bates and R. Craig Lawrence, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, DC.
On brief for appellees Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac R. Co. and Potomac Greens Associates Partnership was Thomas F. Farrell II, Alexandria, VA.
Before WALD, WILLIAMS and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge HENDERSON.
Opinion dissenting in part filed by Circuit Judge WALD.
KAREN LECRAFT HENDERSON, Circuit Judge:
This case is before us for a second time, after remand to the district court. The facts and procedural history are set out in detail in the district court decisions1 and we provide here only a brief summary.
In 1986, after RF & P made public its plans for developing Potomac Greens, Daingerfield filed this action alleging that both the Exchange Agreement and the interchange design approval violated various federal laws. Initially, the district court granted summary judgment to the Park Service on the grounds that the challenge to the Exchange Agreement was barred by laches and the challenge to the design approval had been mooted by congressional action requiring the Park Service to conduct an environmental impact study, which it had done. Daingerfield Island Protective Society v. Hodel, 710 F.Supp. 368 (D.D.C.1989). Daingerfield appealed and this court summarily affirmed the mootness ruling as it applied to Daingerfield‘s National Environmental Policy Act claim. The court then reversed the judgment in all other respects and remanded for further consideration of the remaining claims. Daingerfield Island Protective Society v. Lujan, 920 F.2d 32 (D.C.Cir.1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 809, 112 S.Ct. 54, 116 L.Ed.2d 31 (1991). On remand, the district court again granted summary judgment to the Park Service, holding that (1) the challenge to the Exchange Agreement was barred by the six-year statute of limitations set out in the Tucker Act,
Daingerfield again appealed the district court‘s judgment. In an unpublished order this court summarily affirmed the judgment as it applied to claims alleged under the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Act, the Capper-Cramton Act and the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. The court further held that the Tucker Act‘s six-year statute of limitations governed the appellants’ challenge to the Exchange Agreement and that that cause of action had accrued more than six years before the action was filed. Daingerfield Island Protective Society v. Babbitt, No. 93-5218, 15 F.3d 1159 (Table), 1993 WL 557107 (D.C.Cir. Dec. 13, 1993). We now address the remaining issues on appeal and hold that (1) the government did not waive its statute of limitations defense and the Exchange Agreement challenge is accordingly barred by the Tucker Act and (2) the design approval does not contravene any of the cited laws.
I.
First, we consider whether Daingerfield‘s challenge to the Exchange Agreement is barred by the Tucker Act‘s six-year statute of limitations. Daingerfield asserts that the government waived the limitations defense by (1) failing to plead it with sufficient specificity and (2) waiting until after remand to assert it by motion. The government responds that the defense cannot be waived because it is jurisdictional and, in any event, was not waived here. Because we conclude the limitations defense was not waived, we affirm the district court‘s limitations ruling without deciding whether the defense might under other circumstances be waivable.
First, we conclude that the government adequately pleaded the limitation defense in its answer, which reads in part: “Plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.” JA 38. While this boilerplate language does not cite the specific statute applicable here, it nevertheless satisfies the requirement of
Nor do we believe the government abandoned its limitations defense by failing to assert it before the first appeal. Under the usual rule, an affirmative defense is deemed waived if it “has not been raised in a pleading, by motion, or at trial.” National Treasury Employees Union v. IRS, 765 F.2d 1174, 1176 n. 1 (D.C.Cir.1985) (quoting C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1394, at 872 (1969)). As we have already noted, the government adequately raised the limitations defense in its answer—it was not required to reassert the defense in its subsequent successful summary judgment motion. In urging abandonment, Daingerfield relies on our recent decision in United Mine Workers of Am. 1974 Pension v. Pittston Co., 984 F.2d 469 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 509 U.S. 924, 113 S.Ct. 3039, 125 L.Ed.2d 726 (1993), in which this court affirmed the district court‘s holding that one of the defendants “abandoned its affirmative defenses,” including a limitations defense, “by not raising them prior to summary judgment.” Id. at 478. We find that holding inapposite. The defendant in Pittston apparently waived its defenses from the beginning, having never asserted them in any pleading or motion in the district court.2 Thus, the Pittston court simply found that waiver precluded the defendant from raising those defenses for the first time after summary judgment had been granted in the plaintiff‘s favor. Our holding here is consistent with that finding.
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude the government did not waive its statute of limitations defense and that Daingerfield is therefore barred by the six-year limitations period from challenging the government‘s decision to enter into the Exchange Agreement. Accordingly, we need address here only Daingerfield‘s challenge to the interchange design approved by the Park Service.
II.
Daingerfield contends that the approval of the interchange design violated (1) the National Park Service Organic Act, (2) the National Historic Preservation Act, (3) the National Capital Planning Act and (4) Executive Order No. 11988 and guidelines adopted pursuant thereto. We disagree and conclude the Park Service, and the other agencies involved, adequately complied with the cited laws.
First, Daingerfield argues that the interchange design approval violated the National Park Service Organic Act which requires, in general terms, that the Park Service
shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified, except such as are under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Army, as provided by law, by such means and
measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.
The record demonstrates that the Park Service considered various interchange designs over a seven-year period, reviewing their possible effects on, inter alia, traffic, the wetlands and Daingerfield Island itself. Based on all its studies, the Park Service ultimately approved a modified, diamond-shaped interchange that it concluded would have the least deleterious effect on the environment. Under these circumstances we cannot say the Park Service‘s approval was an abuse of its broad statutory discretion. In fact, Daingerfield does not challenge the particular design the Park Service approved but asserts instead that the construction of any interchange will violate the statutory mandate to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same.” Thus, Daingerfield‘s complaint here is not with the design approved in 1984 but with the Park Service‘s original binding commitment in 1970 to grant an easement for access to Potomac Greens.3 We have already found this challenge foreclosed by the Tucker Act‘s statute of limitations.
Second, Daingerfield contends the design approval violated the National Historic Preservation Act which requires that “[t]he head of any Federal agency having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or Federally assisted undertaking in any State and the head of any Federal department or independent agency having authority to license any undertaking” (1) “take into account the effect of the undertaking on any district, site, building, structure, or object that is included in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register” and (2) “afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation ... a reasonable opportunity to comment with regard to such undertaking.”
Third, Daingerfield contends the design approval violated the National Capital Planning Act. That act establishes the National Capital Planning Commission and requires that
each Federal and District of Columbia agency prior to the preparation of construction plans originated by such agency for proposed developments and projects or to commitments for the acquisition of land, to be paid for in whole or in part from Federal or District funds, shall advise and consult with the Commission in the preparation by the agency of plans and programs in preliminary and successive stages which affect the plan and development of the National Capital.
Finally, Daingerfield alleges the design approval violated Executive Order 11988, and guidelines adopted thereunder, which required it to identify the proposed interchange as a project “in or affecting a floodplain,” to consider both its effect on the floodplain and possible alternatives to it and to take steps to minimize any flood hazard posed by the project. We conclude that the Park Service fulfilled its obligations here as well.
Daingerfield‘s primary objection is to the Park Service‘s alleged failure to consider a single alternative, namely, no interchange at all. As the record makes manifest, however, the Park Service gave that alternative serious consideration and in fact decided preliminarily to adopt it. In the end, however, that option was rejected on counsel‘s advice that the Park Service was legally required to provide some access from the Parkway to Potomac Greens. Further, the Park Service expressly acknowledged that the interchange will be constructed in a “100 year floodplain” and affirmatively required design changes to ameliorate adverse effects on the floodplain.5 Accordingly, we conclude the Park Service has met the requirements of the executive order and of the guidelines.
For the preceding reasons, the district court‘s summary judgment is
Affirmed.
It is indeed a difficult question whether the Tucker Act‘s statute of limitations is jurisdictional and therefore not waivable. The logic of our past cases does suggest that such a statute of limitations acts as a “condition on the waiver of sovereign immunity,” United States v. Mottaz, 476 U.S. 834, 841, 106 S.Ct. 2224, 2229, 90 L.Ed.2d 841 (1986), setting an outer time limit on the subject matter jurisdiction of federal courts for claims against the government, which cannot be waived, Walters v. Secretary of Defense, 725 F.2d 107, 112 n. 12 (D.C.Cir.1983). Nevertheless, since the majority does not reach this novel question, and since the implications of deciding it in the government‘s favor are weighty and deserving of full study and dialogue, I too am content to leave its resolution to another day.
Assuming arguendo that the time bar is waivable, I disagree with the majority, however, in its principal conclusion that the government did not waive it here. The government‘s failure to cite in its answer any specific statute of limitations might be forgiven under the liberal notice pleading requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.1 But its subsequent failure to raise the limitations defense in any way, shape or form up through the grant of summary judgment and the appeal of that judgment is not so easily dismissed. In sum, its overall strategy of totally ignoring any further reference to the statute of limitations until after remand from a court of appeals rejection of its primary laches defense five years later, did amount to a waiver of the limitations bar. That strategy, moreover, indicates too cavalier an approach toward the judicial process and the resources of the court to pass muster.
The tortured procedural history of this case bears out my view. The Society first filed suit in federal district court in 1978, challenging the Park Service‘s failure to prepare an environmental impact statement for a proposed interchange on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, to be built as part of a private development pursuant to its 1970 land exchange agreement with a private party. The government successfully argued that the case was not ripe for adjudication, because at that point the interchange construction was merely “a proposal by a private party” which the government had not yet accepted or rejected. Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Andrus, 458 F.Supp. 961, 963 (D.D.C.1978). After the Park Service finally issued a deed of easement in 1984 implementing the land exchange agreement, and various government agencies had approved an interchange design, the private developer announced in 1986 that it would proceed with the development. The Society promptly brought suit in district court, reasonably believing on the basis of the district court‘s previous decision that the proper time to challenge the government‘s action had arrived. The government, however, responded somewhat surprisingly that it was now too late to bring such a suit, asserting an affirmative defense of laches and—as if by way of afterthought—throwing in a boilerplate reference to “the applicable statute of limitations” (whichever one that might be) in its answer. The government pressed the theory of laches, but remained utterly mute on the subject of the statute of limitations for the next five years. In the meantime, the government moved for dismissal or in the alternative for summary judgment on its principal defense of laches—an equitable defense normally and logically argued in tandem with its legal cousin, the statute of limitations, when the latter is available. After the government prevailed on its laches defense in the trial court, Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Hodel, 710 F.Supp. 368 (D.D.C.1989), the Society appealed. We reversed and sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings on the merits. Daingerfield Island Protective Soc. v. Lujan, 920 F.2d 32 (D.C.Cir.1990). Only then, having lost an appeal of its laches defense and faced with the prospect of having to defend on the merits, did the government assert its statute of limitations defense in substance. I do not believe that mere boilerplate recitation of the
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are designed to promote the twin goals of judicial economy and fairness to litigants, in part by requiring early consolidation of claims and defenses to eliminate dilatory motion practice and to promote speedy resolution of cases.
THE PARK SERVICE‘S STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS
I also disagree with the majority‘s conclusion that, because the Park Service had entered a “legally binding” agreement to build a highway interchange, it was thereby relieved of all further statutory duties to review the environmental, historic, scenic, and recreational consequences of the construction project, except as to narrow design questions. In my view, the agency remained under a statutory obligation to evaluate the entire construction project in light of statutorily-mandated considerations, and to weigh all its options, including the possibility of
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Notes
823 F.Supp. at 956 (record citation omitted).[The Park Service] was firmly advised by counsel that the Exchange Agreement was legally binding. Thus the only choice left to [the Park Service] was to approve the least intrusive interchange possible, which it did, or to refuse to approve any interchange at all, which would have violated the Exchange Agreement that it had been informed was legally binding on the federal government.
