Chapin Furniture Outlet Inc. v. Town of Chapin , 252 F. App'x 566 ( 2007 )


Menu:
  •                                UNPUBLISHED
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
    No. 06-2129
    CHAPIN FURNITURE OUTLET INCORPORATED,
    Plaintiff - Appellant,
    versus
    TOWN   OF    CHAPIN,    SOUTH   CAROLINA,    a
    municipality; STANLEY SHEALY, Mayor of Town of
    Chapin;     ADRIENNE     THOMPSON,     Zoning
    Administrator of Town of Chapin,
    Defendants - Appellees.
    Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
    South Carolina, at Columbia. Margaret B. Seymour, District Judge.
    (3:05-cv-01398-MBS)
    Argued:   September 28, 2007                 Decided:   October 30, 2007
    Before WILKINSON and KING, Circuit Judges, and Frederick P. STAMP,
    Jr., Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District
    of West Virginia, sitting by designation.
    Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
    ARGUED: Douglas M. Bragg, WINSTON & BRAGG, Wilsonville, Oregon, for
    Appellant. Michael Stephen Pauley, VINTON D. LIDE & ASSOCIATES,
    Lexington, South Carolina, for Appellees.      ON BRIEF: D. Reece
    Williams, III, CALLISON, TIGHE & ROBINSON, Columbia, South
    Carolina, for Appellant.      Vinton D. Lide, VINTON D. LIDE &
    ASSOCIATES, Lexington, South Carolina, for Appellees.
    Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
    PER CURIAM:
    Chapin Furniture Outlet Incorporated appeals from the district
    court’s award of summary judgment to the Town of Chapin and two of
    its officials (collectively, the “Town”) in this § 1983 proceeding.
    See Chapin Furniture Outlet, Inc. v. Town of Chapin, No. 3:05-1398-
    MBS (D.S.C. Sept. 20, 2006) (the “Opinion”).1     In May 2005, Chapin
    Furniture initiated this action in the District of South Carolina
    — seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as nominal
    and consequential damages — challenging the Town’s attempt to
    apply a zoning ordinance against Chapin’s use of an electronic sign
    outside its place of business.         Chapin contends that the court
    erred in ruling that the ordinance was content-neutral and did not
    contravene the First Amendment.    Because the Town has revised the
    challenged ordinance to meet Chapin’s contentions and will not
    reenact it, Chapin’s claims are moot.         As explained below, we
    vacate and remand for dismissal.
    I.
    A.
    Chapin Furniture, which operates a furniture store in the
    small town of Chapin, South Carolina, erected an electronic sign,
    called an electronic message center (the “EMC”), outside its store
    1
    The district court’s Opinion is found at J.A. 614-24.
    (Citations herein to “J.A. ____” refer to the Joint Appendix filed
    by the parties in this appeal.)
    2
    in August 2004.    The EMC is designed to flash or scroll messages
    across its display screen.   Chapin installed the EMC at the top of
    a sign post it shared with other businesses, located on Chapin Road
    between the Town’s only two traffic lights.    The EMC is the largest
    and tallest sign on the block and the only one of its type in the
    Town.
    When Chapin added the EMC to the sign post, the Town’s zoning
    ordinance   (the   “Ordinance”)     prohibited,     inter   alia,   the
    installation of:
    Flashing signs, signs with flashing or reflective disks,
    signs with flashing lights or lights of changing degree
    of intensity or color or signs with electrically scrolled
    messages (except government signs and signs which give
    time and temperature information).        If a time and
    temperature sign alternates between a time message and a
    temperature message it shall continuously show one
    message a minimum of three (3) seconds in time before
    switching to the other message.
    Town of Chapin Zoning Ordinance § 901(G).     The Ordinance required
    those wishing to replace or construct signs to first obtain a
    permit, but failed to specify a time within which the Town had to
    act on a permit application.      Id. at § 900.2.    Although the Town
    contends that the purpose of the restrictions spelled out in the
    Ordinance was to protect the rural aesthetics of the Town and, as
    a safety measure, to reduce distractions to drivers, the safety
    purpose was not specified in connection with the sign restrictions.
    On August 20, 2004, the Town’s Zoning Administrator informed
    Chapin that its EMC was operating in a manner that violated the
    3
    Ordinance.   On September 21, 2004, the Administrator sent a letter
    to Chapin advising that its new sign was not in compliance with the
    Ordinance and that the EMC manufacturer had “misrepresented the
    nature of the sign when applying for a permit.”                  J.A. 150.2    The
    Administrator    concluded,      after       conferring   with    the   Planning
    Commission, the Town Council, the Mayor, and others, that the “sign
    is unacceptable to everyone and an exception will not be made to
    allow it to remain.”       Id.    Accordingly, the Administrator asked
    Chapin to “[p]lease respect our ordinances and remove the sign.”
    Id.   Chapin failed to comply with her request to remove the sign.
    Nearly six months later, on March 7, 2005, the Town’s Mayor
    sent Chapin a second letter, again requesting that the sign be
    removed.   The Mayor asserted that the sign violated the Ordinance
    because it did not “provide name and nature of store only . . . .
    [and] the sign must not flash, change degree of intensity or
    electrically    scroll.”      J.A.   398.        Concluding      that   the   sign
    “violates all of the above,” the Mayor requested that Chapin “not
    delay this matter any further” and indicated that it had “until
    2
    Chapin’s permit may have been obtained by misrepresentations
    made by the EMC’s manufacturer about the nature of changes to the
    sign. The Zoning Administrator contends that she was informed by
    telephone that Chapin was simply going to add illumination to the
    sign it already displayed. Because the Ordinance does not require
    a permit for changes to an existing lawful sign that do not render
    the sign in violation of the Ordinance, the Administrator
    determined that Chapin did not need a permit for the changes
    proposed. When the manufacturer indicated that he would like a
    permit anyway, the permit fee was waived and Chapin secured the
    permit that very day.
    4
    March 31, 2005 to have [its] sign removed.”                    Id.     Chapin also
    failed to comply with this request, but the Town took no action to
    enforce the Ordinance — it never cited, fined, or charged Chapin
    with violating the Ordinance, and never instituted any court
    proceedings or otherwise forced the EMC into disuse.                    Chapin has
    thus continued to use the EMC, but has modified the rate at which
    messages are flashed and stopped scrolling messages across the
    display screen.
    B.
    On May 12, 2005, Chapin filed a ten-count § 1983 complaint in
    the District of South Carolina, asserting that the Ordinance
    violated   its    rights     under    the    First,    Fifth,    and    Fourteenth
    Amendments.      The complaint requested declaratory and injunctive
    relief, plus nominal and consequential damages.                       The crux of
    Chapin’s   position     is   the     allegation    that   “[b]y      enacting   and
    enforcing the regulation of [EMCs], the Town of Chapin is willfully
    and unlawfully depriving [it], and other citizens and businesses in
    Chapin, of their right of free expression through this form of
    communication,     as    guaranteed         by   the   First    and     Fourteenth
    Amendments.” J.A. 13. Chapin contends that the First Amendment is
    contravened because: (1) the Ordinance, in allowing the government
    to utilize EMCs, and allowing the display of time and temperature
    information only, impermissibly regulates speech based on content
    and viewpoint; (2) the Town’s stated purpose of protecting rural
    5
    aesthetics fails to show an interest sufficient to permit it to
    regulate speech in this manner; and (3) the entirety of the
    Ordinance is an unconstitutional prior restraint, because its
    permit scheme fails to provide a defined time period for the Town
    to make permit decisions.
    In February 2006, the Town filed a motion for summary judgment
    and Chapin filed a cross-motion for partial summary judgment.             On
    June 22, 2006, at a hearing on the summary judgment motions, the
    Town informed the district court that it was in the process of
    revising      the   Ordinance.     As   a   result,   the   court   obtained
    supplemental briefing on the mootness issue, which implicated its
    jurisdiction to address the issues raised by Chapin.
    On September 20, 2006, the district court issued the Opinion
    from which this appeal is taken, awarding summary judgment to the
    Town, denying Chapin’s request for partial summary judgment, and
    concluding that Chapin’s claims were not moot.              On the mootness
    issue, the court explained that the Town had failed to meet its
    “burden of demonstrating that [it] would not reenact the challenged
    provisions of the Ordinance.”           Opinion 4.3    On the merits, the
    court concluded that the Ordinance was a content-neutral regulation
    of   speech    that   advanced   legitimate   governmental    interests   in
    3
    The Opinion indicates that “[t]he Town approved the revised
    ordinance on July 18, 2006,” and the district court treated the
    Revised Ordinance as final. Opinion 2. The Revised Ordinance,
    however, was not actually enacted until November 7, 2006, after the
    Town had conducted a public hearing.
    6
    preserving rural community aesthetics and avoiding traffic hazards.
    Id. at 5-6.      It also determined that the Ordinance did not
    unconstitutionally restrict commercial speech or constitute a prior
    restraint thereon.     Id. at 8-9.    For these reasons, the court
    concluded that the “Ordinance passe[d] constitutional muster.” Id.
    at 11.   On October 18, 2006, Chapin filed its notice of appeal, and
    we possess jurisdiction pursuant to 
    28 U.S.C. § 1291
    .
    C.
    On November 7, 2006, after the district court had awarded
    summary judgment to the Town and Chapin had initiated this appeal,
    the Town validly enacted its revised Ordinance (the “Revised
    Ordinance”). The Revised Ordinance includes a Statement of Purpose
    and Intent, i.e., that the “intent of these sign regulations” is to
    preserve, inter alia, “the health, safety, welfare and general
    well-being of the community’s citizens.”       See Appellee’s Br.,
    Addendum A, § 900.1.    The Revised Ordinance now prohibits:
    Flashing signs, signs with flashing or reflective disks,
    signs with flashing lights or lights of changing degree
    of intensity or color or signs with electrically scrolled
    messages.
    Id. at § 901(G).       The Revised Ordinance does not contain an
    exception for governmental signs or for signs displaying only time
    and temperature information.    In addition, it provides that, upon
    receipt of all necessary information, permit requests will be acted
    upon by the Town within two weeks of receipt.      Id. at § 900.2.
    Although Chapin fails to assert on appeal any First Amendment
    7
    concerns regarding the Revised Ordinance, it maintains that the
    revisions were adopted in an effort to render its claims moot and
    that the Ordinance could be reenacted at any time.4
    II.
    We       review   de   novo   a   district    court's     award   of   summary
    judgment, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the
    non-moving party. See Seabulk Offshore, Ltd. v. Am. Home Assur.
    Co., 
    377 F.3d 408
    , 418 (4th Cir. 2004).                We also review de novo a
    district court’s ruling concerning subject matter jurisdiction,
    including a ruling on mootness.             See Covenant Media of S.C., LLC v.
    City       of    N.   Charleston,    
    493 F.3d 421
    ,   428   (4th    Cir.   2007)
    (concluding that district court’s conclusion regarding Article III
    jurisdiction is “legal conclusion that we review de novo”).
    4
    The Revised Ordinance does not permit scrolling messages and
    Chapin mentions this point (briefly) only in its reply brief.
    Chapin’s summary briefing on this issue provides an insufficient
    basis for our review. See Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(9)(A) (providing
    that appellant’s brief must contain “contentions and the reasons
    for them, with citations to the authorities and parts of the record
    on which the appellant relies”). Assuming that Chapin preserved
    this issue, its discontent with such a de minimus aspect of the
    Revised Ordinance is not sufficient to preserve a live case or
    controversy. See Lovern v. Edwards, 
    190 F.3d 648
    , 654 (4th Cir.
    1999) (concluding that “federal jurisdiction requires that a party
    assert a substantial federal claim” (emphasis in original, internal
    quotation marks omitted)); Davis v. Pak, 
    856 F.2d 648
    , 650 (4th
    Cir. 1988) (concluding that mere assertion of constitutional
    violation   not   sufficient   to   obtain   jurisdiction   because
    jurisdiction requires party to assert substantial federal claim).
    8
    III.
    Before assessing the merits of Chapin’s appellate contentions,
    we must first determine whether its claims have been rendered moot
    by the Town’s adoption of the Revised Ordinance.             This process is
    necessary because the Constitution limits our jurisdiction to the
    adjudication of actual cases and controversies.              See U.S. Const.
    art. III, § 2; DeFunis v. Odegaard, 
    416 U.S. 312
    , 316 (1974) (per
    curiam).    “[A] case is moot when the issues presented are no longer
    ‘live’ or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the
    outcome.”     Powell v. McCormack, 
    395 U.S. 486
    , 496 (1969).               The
    requirement that a case involve an actual, ongoing controversy
    extends throughout the pendency of an action.                See Preiser v.
    Newkirk, 
    422 U.S. 395
    , 401 (1975).          To satisfy the Article III case
    or controversy requirement, “[a] litigant must have suffered some
    actual   injury   that   can   be   redressed    by   a   favorable   judicial
    decision.”    Iron Arrow Honor Soc’y v. Heckler, 
    464 U.S. 67
    , 70-71
    (1983). When a case or controversy ceases to exist, the litigation
    becomes moot and the federal court no longer possesses jurisdiction
    to proceed.    
    Id.
    A.
    As a preliminary matter, Chapin maintains that we cannot
    dismiss its appeal as moot because the Town has waived any mootness
    contention in failing to file a cross-appeal, and in raising
    mootness only in its response brief.            This contention is without
    9
    merit, however, because mootness is a jurisdictional question that
    we   are   obliged,   if   necessary,    to   address   sua   sponte.   See
    Friedman’s, Inc. v. Dunlap, 
    290 F.3d 191
    , 197 (4th Cir. 2002)
    (noting that “the question of whether we are presented with a live
    case or controversy is a question we may raise sua sponte” as
    mootness goes to heart of Article III jurisdiction (internal
    quotation marks omitted)); see also Mt. Healthy City Sch. Bd. of
    Educ. v. Doyle, 
    429 U.S. 274
    , 278 (1977) (concluding that “we are
    obliged to inquire sua sponte whenever a doubt arises as to the
    existence of federal jurisdiction”).          Accordingly, because we lack
    jurisdiction “to decide questions that cannot affect the rights of
    litigants in the case before [us],” we must address whether the
    Town’s adoption of the Revised Ordinance has mooted Chapin’s case.
    See North Carolina v. Rice, 
    404 U.S. 244
    , 246 (1971).
    B.
    1.
    As spelled out above, Chapin has complained about multiple
    aspects of the Ordinance.         See supra Part I.B.          However, the
    Revised Ordinance undermines each of Chapin’s contentions.               It
    makes no exception for the government or for time and temperature
    EMCs, and its Statement of Purpose and Intent confirms that the
    “intent of these sign regulations” is to preserve, inter alia, “the
    health, safety, welfare and general well-being of the community’s
    citizens.” See Appellee’s Br., Addendum A, § 900.1. Moreover, the
    10
    Revised Ordinance requires the Town to approve or deny permit
    applications    within    two    weeks   of   obtaining    the   necessary
    information.    Id. at § 900.2.     Because the challenged aspects of
    the Ordinance have been remedied, Chapin’s claims for injunctive
    and declaratory relief appear to be moot.            See Coal. for the
    Abolition of Marijuana Prohibition v. City of Atlanta, 
    219 F.3d 1301
    , 1310 (11th Cir. 2000) (noting that “superseding statute or
    regulation moots a case . . . to the extent that it removes
    challenged features of the prior law”). Our review of the mootness
    issue does not end here, however, because voluntary cessation of a
    challenged     activity   does    not    automatically    deprive   us   of
    jurisdiction.
    2.
    As we recognized in Am. Legion Post 7 of Durham v. City of
    Durham, “the mere amendment or repeal of a challenged ordinance
    does not automatically moot a challenge to that ordinance.”              
    239 F.3d 601
    , 605 (4th Cir. 2001) (citing City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s
    Castle, Inc., 
    455 U.S. 283
    , 289 (1982)).        Instead, we must assess
    the likelihood that the Town will reenact the Ordinance.            Id. at
    606.   This is so because “[a] case is not moot, and the exercise of
    federal jurisdiction may be appropriate . . . if a party can
    demonstrate that the apparent absence of a live dispute is merely
    a temporary abeyance of a harm that is ‘capable of repetition, yet
    evading review.’”     Brooks v. Vassar, 
    462 F.3d 341
    , 348 (4th Cir
    11
    2006) (citing Mellen v. Bunting, 
    327 F.3d 355
    , 363-64 (4th Cir.
    2003)).     Nevertheless, a lawsuit challenging a statute that no
    longer exists can become moot “even where re-enactment of the
    statute at issue is within the power of the legislature.”                     Am.
    Legion Post 7, 
    239 F.3d at 606
    .         “Only if reenactment is not merely
    possible but appears probable may we find the harm to be ‘capable
    of repetition, yet evading review’ and hold that the case is not
    moot.”    Brooks, 
    462 F.3d at 348
    .
    In its evaluation of the mootness issue, the district court
    concluded    that   the    Town   had   failed   to   meet   its    “burden    of
    demonstrating that [it] would not reenact the challenged provisions
    of the Ordinance.”        Opinion 4.    Two important events have occurred
    since the court’s Opinion of September 20, 2006.                     First, on
    November 7, 2006, the Town enacted the Revised Ordinance, despite
    having already been awarded summary judgment in this case. Second,
    the Town assured this Court at oral argument that it will not
    reenact the Ordinance.         Accordingly, we are confident that the
    Ordinance will not be reenacted and that any alleged harm to Chapin
    is not “capable of repetition, yet evading review.”                See Reyes v.
    City of Lynchburg, 
    300 F.3d 449
    , 453 (4th Cir. 2002) (concluding
    overbreadth claim moot where city repealed challenged ordinance,
    promised not to reenact similar one, and there was “no reasonable
    expectation” that city would reenact it).               The claims made in
    Chapin’s complaint are therefore now moot.             
    Id. at 453
     (agreeing
    12
    with lower court that case was “moot as to future application”
    because City repealed ordinance and promised not to reenact similar
    one).
    C.
    Chapin     contends,    however,        that   even   if   its   claims    for
    declaratory and injunctive relief have been mooted by the Revised
    Ordinance, its claim for nominal damages yet presents a live
    controversy.5    Chapin posits that “for so long as the plaintiff has
    a cause of action for damages, a defendant’s change in conduct will
    not moot the case.”         Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc v. W. Va.
    Dep’t of Health & Human Res., 
    532 U.S. 598
    , 608-09 (2001).                     This
    proposition is normally valid, and it has been applied where a
    plaintiff is only pursuing a claim for nominal damages. See Henson
    v. Honor Comm. of the Univ. of Va., 
    719 F.2d 69
    , 72 n.5 (4th Cir.
    1983) (observing that withdrawal of disciplinary charges did not
    moot claim because plaintiff also sought nominal damages); see also
    KH Outdoor, LLC v. Clay County, 
    482 F.3d 1299
    , 1303 (11th Cir.
    2007) (noting that, because nominal damages were requested, changes
    made to ordinance did not moot claim).
    Chapin’s    assertion     of   a   nominal      damages    claim   alone   is
    insufficient to preserve a live controversy, however, as the
    5
    Chapin has not pursued its claim for consequential damages on
    appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(9)(A); Carter v. Lee, 
    283 F.3d 240
    , 252 n.11 (4th Cir. 2002) (noting that contentions not raised
    in opening brief are deemed waived).
    13
    Ordinance was never enforced against it and it has not suffered any
    constitutional deprivation.      See Tanner Adver. Group, LLC v.
    Fayette County, 
    451 F.3d 777
    , 786 (11th Cir. 2006) (concluding that
    “request for damages that is barred as a matter of law cannot save
    a case from mootness”)(citing Arizonans for Official English v.
    Arizona, 
    520 U.S. 43
    , 69 (1997)).      The Supreme Court’s decision in
    Carey v. Piphus, 
    435 U.S. 247
    , 254 (1978), “obligates a court to
    award nominal damages when a plaintiff establishes the violation of
    [a constitutional right] but cannot prove actual injury.”           Farrar
    v. Hobby, 
    506 U.S. 103
    , 112 (1992).         As the Supreme Court has
    observed,   “[w]hatever   the   constitutional    basis   for   §     1983
    liability, such damages must always be designed to compensate
    injuries caused by the [constitutional] deprivation.”           Memphis
    Cmty. Sch. Dist. v. Stachura, 
    477 U.S. 299
    , 309-10 (1986) (internal
    quotation marks omitted).   Thus, although Chapin need not prove an
    actual, compensable injury in order to recover nominal damages, it
    must nevertheless show that a constitutional deprivation occurred.
    
    Id.
     at 308 n.11; see also Reyes, 
    300 F.3d at 453
     (“Nominal damages
    may be available in a § 1983 case if a plaintiff was deprived of an
    absolute right yet did not suffer an actual injury.”); Williams v.
    Griffin, 
    952 F.2d 820
    , 825 n.2 (4th Cir. 1991) (concluding that “in
    the absence of a showing of actual injury, [plaintiff] would still
    be entitled to nominal damages upon proof of a constitutional
    violation”).
    14
    In the absence of a constitutional deprivation, Chapin’s
    nominal damages claim does not save this case from mootness.
    Moreover,    the    fact    that   Chapin     could   have    suffered   some
    constitutional deprivation if the Town had enforced the Ordinance
    does not save its claim for nominal damages — such damages are
    reserved for constitutional deprivations that have occurred, not
    those that are merely speculative.           See Tanner, 
    451 F.3d at 786-87
    (concluding that claims of appellant could not be saved from
    mootness by claim for damages where sign ordinance had not caused
    harm); see also Comm. for the First Amendment v. Campbell, 
    962 F.2d 1517
    , 1526 (10th Cir. 1992) (finding that, although adoption of new
    policy mooted claims for injunctive relief, “the district court
    erred in dismissing the nominal damages claim which relates to past
    (not future) conduct”) (emphasis in original).
    In Covenant Media of South Carolina, LLC v. City of North
    Charleston, we recently addressed a mootness issue related to
    nominal damages in a § 1983 case.             See 
    493 F.3d 421
     (4th Cir.
    2007).   Covenant Media had filed a civil action against the City of
    North Charleston, alleging a violation of its First Amendment
    rights by enforcement of the City’s sign regulation.              
    Id. at 424
    .
    Covenant    Media   had    submitted    an   application     to   construct   a
    billboard as required by the City’s sign regulation, and when the
    City failed to act on its application for several months, Covenant
    Media filed suit.     
    Id. at 425
    .      Covenant Media contended that the
    15
    sign regulation was unconstitutional because it “failed to require
    a decision on a sign permit within a specific time period, in
    contravention of procedural safeguards mandated by Freedman v.
    Maryland, 
    380 U.S. 51
    , 58-59 (1965).”        Id. at 428.    In addition to
    injunctive relief, Covenant Media sought nominal damages.          Id. at
    427.    During the litigation, North Charleston adopted a revised
    regulation, which placed a forty-five day time limitation on the
    disposition of sign permit applications — a procedural provision
    not included in its predecessor regulation.               Id. at 426.    We
    decided that, if the City’s original sign regulation lacked the
    procedural safeguards mandated by Freedman, Covenant had “suffered
    an   injury   by   the   City’s   application   of   an   unconstitutional
    ordinance that is redressable at least by nominal damages.” Id. at
    428.   Accordingly, we determined that “Covenant’s suit is not moot
    because if Covenant is correct on the merits, it is entitled to at
    least nominal damages.” Id. at 429 n.4. We nevertheless cautioned
    that “a plaintiff must establish that he has standing to challenge
    each provision of an ordinance by showing that he was injured by
    application of those provisions.”         Id. at 430 (emphasis added).
    The Covenant Media situation is readily distinguishable from
    this appeal.       Unlike the plaintiff in Covenant Media, Chapin’s
    permit application received prompt attention.         In fact, Chapin was
    not required to submit a permit application before making changes
    to its sign.       Despite assurances that it did not need a permit,
    16
    Chapin nevertheless submitted an application.                      In response, the
    Town    immediately       waived      the    permit        fee   and    approved    the
    application.        It was only after Chapin installed and began using
    its EMC, on August 20, 2004, that the Town realized the nature of
    Chapin’s changes to its sign and requested that it remove the EMC.
    Notwithstanding Chapin’s violation of the Ordinance, the Town
    did    not   fine   or   cite   Chapin,      and      no   court   proceedings      were
    initiated against it.           In fact, in its summary judgment papers,
    Chapin informed the district court that “[f]rom the time the sign
    was put up through the course of this litigation, the Chapin
    Furniture      Outlet    sign   has    been      in    use     advertising    for   the
    businesses located on the property the sign is on.”                          J.A. 360.
    Chapin noted that “[t]he sign has been displaying these messages at
    the same intervals allowed for time and temperature signs.” Id. at
    360-61.      Such flashing messages violated the Ordinance, but Chapin
    concedes that it has used its EMC throughout the pendency of its
    dispute with the Town.           Any contention that Chapin’s speech was
    chilled      by   the    Ordinance     or    the      Town’s     letters   requesting
    compliance therewith is thus entirely undermined.                      And, Chapin has
    failed to allege any other constitutional deprivation sufficient to
    support a claim for nominal damages.                       Unlike the plaintiff in
    Covenant Media, Chapin is unable to show any constitutional injury
    caused by the Ordinance.           As we observed there, “a plaintiff must
    establish that he has standing to challenge each provision of an
    17
    ordinance by showing that he was injured by application of those
    provisions.”       Covenant Media, 
    493 F.3d at 430
    .
    Absent    a    constitutional   deprivation,   Chapin’s   claim   for
    nominal damages fails to present a case or controversy sufficient
    to avoid mootness.       Because we cannot grant “any effectual relief
    whatever,” including nominal damages, in favor of Chapin, this
    proceeding must be dismissed as moot.      Calderon v. Moore, 
    518 U.S. 149
    , 150 (1996) (per curiam).
    IV.
    Pursuant to the foregoing, we vacate the judgment of the
    district court and remand for dismissal.6
    VACATED AND REMANDED
    6
    When a claim becomes “moot after the entry of a district
    court’s final judgment and prior to the completion of appellate
    review, we generally vacate the judgment and remand for dismissal.”
    Mellen v. Bunting, 
    327 F.3d 355
    , 364 (4th Cir. 2003). Although
    vacatur is not appropriate where mootness occurs due to the
    voluntary actions of the losing party, it is available where
    “appellate review of the adverse ruling was prevented by the
    vagaries of circumstance or the unilateral action of the party who
    prevailed below.” Valero Terrestrial Corp. v. Paige, 
    211 F.3d 112
    ,
    117-18 (4th Cir. 2000) (internal citations and quotation marks
    omitted).
    18
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 06-2129

Citation Numbers: 252 F. App'x 566

Judges: Wilkinson, King, Stamp, Northern, Virginia

Filed Date: 10/30/2007

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 11/5/2024

Authorities (21)

Freedman v. Maryland , 85 S. Ct. 734 ( 1965 )

City of Mesquite v. Aladdin's Castle, Inc. , 102 S. Ct. 1070 ( 1982 )

Desmond Keith Carter v. R.C. Lee, Warden, Central Prison, ... , 283 F.3d 240 ( 2002 )

john-daniel-reyes-and-keith-tucci-v-city-of-lynchburg-and-william-g , 300 F.3d 449 ( 2002 )

Evelyn Davis v. Chong M. Pak Ralph G. Cantrell Diane E. ... , 856 F.2d 648 ( 1988 )

Preiser v. Newkirk , 95 S. Ct. 2330 ( 1975 )

Tanner Advertising Group, L.L.C. v. Fayette County , 451 F.3d 777 ( 2006 )

American Legion Post 7 of Durham, North Carolina v. City of ... , 239 F.3d 601 ( 2001 )

Covenant Media of South Carolina, LLC v. City of North ... , 493 F.3d 421 ( 2007 )

Michael Lovern, Sr. v. Mark A. Edwards, Individually and in ... , 190 F.3d 648 ( 1999 )

seabulk-offshore-limited-v-american-home-assurance-company-and-dyn , 377 F.3d 408 ( 2004 )

peter-brooks-david-t-gies-patricia-clemmer-peters-robin-b-heatwole-dry , 462 F.3d 341 ( 2006 )

North Carolina v. Rice , 92 S. Ct. 402 ( 1971 )

Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona , 117 S. Ct. 1055 ( 1997 )

KH Outdoor, L.L.C. v. Clay County, Florida , 482 F.3d 1299 ( 2007 )

Josiah Henson v. The Honor Committee of U. Va., the Rector ... , 719 F.2d 69 ( 1983 )

Eddie Williams v. J.H. Griffin, Superintendent J.C. Harris, ... , 952 F.2d 820 ( 1991 )

valero-terrestrial-corporation-lackawanna-transport-company-solid-waste , 211 F.3d 112 ( 2000 )

Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle , 97 S. Ct. 568 ( 1977 )

Calderon v. Moore , 116 S. Ct. 2066 ( 1996 )

View All Authorities »