Debra M. Brown, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
This Clean Air Act action is before the Court on Defendant Mississippi Silicon, LLC's motion for attorney's fees, Doc. #115; and Plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a sur-rebuttal, Doc. #121. For the reasons below, both motions will be denied.
Of relevance to this order,
On January 23, 2015, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint pursuant to Rule 15(a)(1)(B), adding as a defendant Gary Rikard, in his official capacity as Executive Director of MDEQ and its Permit Board. Doc. #69. The amended complaint contained essentially the same allegations against MS Silicon as the original complaint, and added a claim that MDEQ, in the process of granting MS Silicon's permit application, violated the CAA. Id. at ¶¶ 79-86.
On March 24, 2015, Rikard, arguing that Plaintiffs' claims were barred by the Eleventh Amendment, filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
On July 30, 2015, this Court issued an order dismissing without prejudice the claims against MS Silicon for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Doc. #111 at 27. In the same order, the Court instructed Plaintiffs and Rikard to submit supplemental briefs addressing whether this Court had subject matter jurisdiction over the claims asserted against Rikard in the amended complaint, including whether the amended complaint may relate back to the
On August 18, 2015, the parties submitted supplemental briefs addressing the issue of this Court's jurisdiction over Rikard. Doc. #117; Doc. #118. The same day, MS Silicon filed a motion for attorney's fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7604(d). Doc. #115. Plaintiffs timely responded to the motion for attorney's fees, Doc. #119, and MS Silicon timely replied, Doc. #120.
On September 11, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a motion for leave to file a sur-reply. Doc. #121. Four days later, on September 15, 2015, MS Silicon responded in opposition to the motion for leave. Doc. #122. Plaintiffs did not reply to MS Silicon's response.
Subsequently, on December 22, 2015, this Court granted Rikard's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Doc. #123.
"While it is true that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not expressly allow for a surreply by a nonmovant[,] ... a surreply is appropriate when the movant's rebuttal raises new legal theories or attempts to present new evidence at the reply or rebuttal stage." Elwood v. Cobra Collection Agency, No. 2:06-cv-91, 2006 WL 3694594, at *7 (S.D.Miss. Dec. 14, 2006). However, "surreplies are heavily disfavored by courts." Warrior Energy Servs. Corp. v. ATP Titan M/V, 551 Fed. Appx. 749, 751 n. 2 (5th Cir.2014) (internal punctuation omitted). Accordingly, the Court must decide whether MS Silicon's reply raised new legal theories or attempted to present new evidence. Such an inquiry necessarily requires consideration of the arguments raised in MS Silicon's initial brief and Plaintiffs' response brief.
In its memorandum in support of its motion for attorney's fees, MS Silicon contends that the Court has discretion to award fees under the CAA, and argues that attorney's fees under the statute are appropriate because it was the prevailing party and because Plaintiffs' claims were "frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless" under Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 422, 98 S.Ct. 694, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978). Doc. #116 at 1, 3-4. As support for the latter argument, MS Silicon argues that, "[t]o determine whether an action was frivolous, courts have looked to whether the plaintiff established a prima facie case, the defendant offered to settle, and whether the case proceeded to a trial on the merits." Id. at 4 (citing Barnes Found. v. Twp. of Lower Merion, 242 F.3d 151, 158 (3d Cir.2001)).
In their response to the motion for attorney's fees, Plaintiffs submit that the motion should be denied because: (1) it is premature; (2) the Court lacks jurisdiction to award attorney's fees; (3) MS Silicon did not prevail on the merits; and (4) the action was not groundless under Christiansburg because, among other reasons, the Court issued lengthy opinions in this case and such opinions reveal that "the issue was carefully contested, litigated, and argued...." Doc. #119 at 3, 5, 7, 10. Plaintiffs also argue that the three-factor "test in [Merion] has never been adopted (or even acknowledged) by any court in the Fifth Circuit." Id. at 7 n.5.
In its reply, MS Silicon cites Sierra Club v. Energy Future Holdings Corp.,
A reply's inclusion of "previously un-cited authority" does not justify a surreply when the "new" authority is offered "to correct the other side's arguments or supply additional authority." Sosna v. Bank of Am. N.A., No. 10-2374, 2011 WL 1060966, at *6 (D.Kan. Mar. 21 2011). The Court has reviewed MS Silicon's reply in support of the motion for attorney's fees and does not see a new argument or legal theory that would justify a sur-reply. To the contrary, as mentioned above, MS Silicon's citations to Energy Future Holdings all either address arguments in Plaintiffs' response brief or provide additional support for arguments raised in the initial brief and motion. Accordingly, Plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a sur-reply, Doc. #121, is denied.
Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7604(d) of the CAA, a "court, in issuing any final order in any action brought pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, may award costs of litigation (including reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) to any party, whenever the court determines such award is appropriate." When a defendant seeks attorney's fees under this provision, an award will only be "appropriate" when the defendant "prevailed" in the litigation, Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U.S. 680, 685-86, 103 S.Ct. 3274, 77 L.Ed.2d 938 (1983);
It is axiomatic that "[f]ederal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They possess only that power authorized by Constitution and statute, which is not to be expanded by judicial decree." Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994) (internal citations omitted). Accordingly, where a district court lacks jurisdiction to award attorney's fees, it lacks the power to make such an award. See Cliburn
There can be no dispute as to the general existence of a district court's jurisdiction to award attorney's fees or costs following a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction. See Willy v. Coastal Corp., 503 U.S. 131, 136 n. 2 & 139, 112 S.Ct. 1076, 117 L.Ed.2d 280 (1992). For example, following a jurisdictional dismissal, a district court may grant attorney's fees under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or "order the payment of just costs" under 28 U.S.C. § 1919. Id. Additionally, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c), following a remand, a district court may order "payment of just costs and any actual expenses, including attorney fees...." However, beyond these and other limited circumstances, "the circuits are divided over whether a district court may award attorneys' fees to the defendant in a case over which the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction."
The parties have not identified, and this Court has been unable to find, a Fifth Circuit decision directly addressing the circuit split.
First, in unpublished dicta, the Fifth Circuit observed that "a lack of subject matter jurisdiction over the underlying substantive claim bars a court's jurisdiction over the accompanying § 1988 claim
Second, in Cliburn v. Police Jury Association of Louisiana, Inc., the Fifth Circuit considered whether a defendant could recover attorney's fees under the fee-shifting provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") when the plaintiff's ERISA claim had been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. 165 F.3d at 316. In addressing this question, the Fifth Circuit first considered whether the "district court's dismissal of [the ERISA] claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction [would be] inconsistent with an award of fees and costs under a statute which [allowed for fees under] `any action under this subchapter.'" Id. After concluding that such an award would be inconsistent because lack of jurisdiction necessarily meant there was no "action," the Fifth Circuit held, "Given that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear [the] claims under ERISA, it logically follows that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the... request for fees ... under ERISA." Id.
Cliburn's focus on whether the fee-shifting statute was inconsistent with a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, and the Fifth Circuit's subsequent conclusion that in the absence of such consistency the district court lacks jurisdiction over the request for fees, necessarily implies that a fee-shifting provision does not, standing alone, form an independent basis for jurisdiction. Rather, the analysis suggests that questions of jurisdiction for fee-shifting statutes must be answered on a statute-by-statute basis. This analysis mirrors the statutory focus of the Second, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, in which courts inquire whether the relevant statute provides an independent basis of jurisdiction.
Based on the dicta in Berry, which interpreted a § 1988 a fee-shifting provision similar to § 7604(d),
In considering whether § 7604(d) includes a grant of jurisdiction, the Court begins, as it must, with the plain meaning of the statute. See Sealed Appellee 1 v. Sealed Appellant 1, 767 F.3d 418, 421 (5th Cir.2013) ("When the plain language of a statute is unambiguous and does not lead to an absurd result, our inquiry begins and ends with the plain meaning of that language.") (internal punctuation and quotation marks omitted). To this end, "[b]eyond the law itself, dictionary definitions inform the plain meaning of a statute." United States v. Radley, 632 F.3d 177, 183 (5th Cir.2011).
As quoted above, 42 U.S.C. § 7604(d) provides that a "court, in issuing any final order in any action brought pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, may award costs of litigation (including reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) to any party, whenever the court determines such award is appropriate." As framed, this provision presupposes the existence of a "final order in any action brought pursuant to subsection (a) of this section." The plain meaning of "pursuant to" is "in conformity with." See Pursuant to, MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM, http://www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/pursuant&tuml;o (last visited, February 17, 2016); see also Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014), "pursuant to" ("In compliance with; in accordance with; under").
Based on the accepted definition of "pursuant to," under the plain meaning of § 7604, an award of attorney's fees under subsection (d) requires that the underlying action have been brought in conformity with subsection (a). Insofar as subsection (a) is the CAA's jurisdictional provision,
For the reasons above, Plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a sur-reply [121] and Defendants' motion for attorney's fees [115] are
Furthermore, the conclusion is consistent with the jurisprudence cited above holding that § 1988 does not form an independent basis of jurisdiction, and with the holding of at least one district court to consider whether a court may grant fees under § 7604(d) following a jurisdictional dismissal. See supra note 7; see also Nucor Steel-Arkansas v. Big River Steel, LLC, 93 F.Supp.3d 983, 992 n. 11 (E.D.Ark.2015) ("Because the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, Big River Steel's request for attorney's fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7604(d) must be denied.") (citing Greater Detroit Res. Recovery Auth., 916 F.2d at 324)).