Oceana, Inc. v. Pritzker

58 F.Supp.3d 2 (Mem)

Oceana, Inc., Plaintiff

v.Penny Pritzker, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 13–770 JEB

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

October 28, 2013

Judith E. Coleman, Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Andrea Gelatt, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JAMES E. BOASBERG, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Oceana, Inc. brought this action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701 –706, challenging procedural and substantive aspects of the National Marine Fisheries Service's at-sea monitoring program in its Northeast Multispecies Fishery. Oceana alleges that the Service's relatively lax monitoring plan was motivated by cost savings, not conservation, and that, as a result, it violates controlling law, including this Court's decision in Oceana, Inc. v. Locke, 831 F.Supp.2d 95 (D.D.C.2011). See Compl., ¶ 60. The Government, believing that the suit should be heard near the communities most affected by the Service's decision, now moves to transfer the case to the District of Massachusetts pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Because the Court finds that convenience and the interests of justice justify keeping the matter in the District of Columbia, it will deny Defendants' Motion.

I. Background

In recognition of the persistence of overfishing and habitat loss that threaten fish populations off the coasts of the United States, and with the aim of maintaining a balance between conserving fishery resources and promoting the American fishing industry, Congress enacted the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, 16 U.S.C. § 1801 et seq. The Act created eight Regional Fishery Management Councils to monitor and oversee multiple fisheries in each region's waters. 16 U.S.C. § 1852. Each Council is responsible for developing and maintaining a Fishery Management Plan for each fishery under its control. The Act imposes content requirements on these FMPs, see § 1853(a)(15), which must ultimately be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, acting on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce. See § 1854.

The Northeast Multispecies Fishery is a “mixed stock” fishery that includes 13 species of fish that live in the coastal waters off New England and the mid-Atlantic states. See Compl., ¶ 18. Some of these stocks include species that have been chronically overfished for years. See id., ¶ 19. In response, the Service enacted the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, a federal scheme that regulates the management of twenty stocks of fish in New England. See id., ¶ 23. In 2009, the Service adopted Amendment 16 to the FMP, see id., ¶¶ 23–26, which was meant to end overfishing and to rebuild overfished stocks in the Northeast. It also expanded the Fishery's sector program, which limits the number of vessel groups that may fish in a given year. See id.

The Service has established procedures to adjust FMPs during the time between amendments. See Compl., ¶ 48. These procedures, known as “framework adjustments,” are intended to allow the Government flexibility in managing fisheries without having to observe the full procedural requirements that otherwise apply to the adoption of new or significantly modified management measures. Id. Framework 48, one such adjustment, took effect on May 3, 2013, altering the process by which vessel groups could gain access to the areas cordoned off under the Northeast FMP.See Compl., ¶ 48; 50 C.F.R. § 648.87(c)(2)(i). According to Plaintiff, the new Framework “allowed [the Service] discretion not to adequately monitor” the covered sectors. Compl., ¶ 54.

Oceana is “a non-profit international advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the world's oceans through policy, advocacy, science, law, and public education.” Id., ¶ 2. Although headquartered in Washington, D.C., Oceana claims “195,000 members around the world,” id., who “use and enjoy the oceans for a variety of [recreational and commercial] activities” and are interested in the “consumption and commercial and recreational use of fish populations.” Id., ¶ 5. Its members are harmed, Oceana alleges, by “unsustainable fishing practices in the Northeast fisheries” generally and by “the failure of the Fisheries Service to establish adequate catch monitoring systems and accountability measures” in particular. Id., ¶¶ 5–6.

In this suit, Oceana challenges two agency actions: (1) the Secretary's promulgation of Framework 48; and (2) her approval, pursuant to the new Framework, of an allegedly inadequate monitoring level for the 2013 fishing year. See id., ¶¶ 56–86. The challenged regulations relate directly to fisheries off the coast of New England, but the parties disagree sharply about whether the regulations will have broader effects. Compare Transfer Opp. at 6 (“Mismanagement of the Northeastern fisheries is not a ‘Northeastern’ problem; it is a national one.”) with Transfer Mot. at 7 (noting “the local interest in deciding local controversies at home”) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Although Defendants here also moved for summary judgment on the merits of Plaintiff's suit, they have separately brought this Motion to Transfer, contending that Massachusetts is the more desirable location for the resolution of this dispute.

II. Legal Standard

Even if a plaintiff has brought its case in a proper venue, a district court may, “for the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interests of justice ... transfer [it] ... to any other district or division where [the case] might have been brought.” 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). The only textual limitation on the Court's power to transfer a case under § 1404(a), then, is the requirement that the case “might have been brought” in the forum to which the defendant is seeking transfer. Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 623, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964). In other words, the transfer statute requires that venue be proper in the new forum.

Once that threshold condition is met, district courts have “discretion ... to adjudicate motions for transfer according to an ‘individualized, case-by-case consideration of convenience and fairness.’ ” Stewart Org., Inc. v. Ricoh Corp., 487 U.S. 22, 29, 108 S.Ct. 2239, 101 L.Ed.2d 22 (1988) (quoting Van Dusen, 376 U.S. at 622, 84 S.Ct. 805 ); see also Pres. Soc'y of Charleston v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, 893 F.Supp.2d 49, 53 (D.D.C.2012). Courts in this circuit are instructed to consider motions to transfer venue favorably, given “[t]he danger that a plaintiff might manufacture venue in the District of Columbia ... by naming high government officials as defendants....” Cameron v. Thornburgh, 983 F.2d 253, 256 (D.C.Cir.1993). Still, to prevail, the movant must show that “considerations of convenience and the interest of justice weigh in favor of transfer....” Sierra Club v. Flowers, 276 F.Supp.2d 62, 65 (D.D.C.2003).

III. Analysis

A. Propriety of New Venue

Defendants argue—and Plaintiff does not contest—that this case could have been brought in the District of Massachusetts. The Court agrees. Under the general federal venue statute, venue in a suit against the federal government will lie in any district in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred. See 28 U.S.C. § 1391(e)(1)(C). This dispute concerns the effects of Framework 48 and associated decisions, and federal officials in Gloucester, Massachusetts, were involved in writing and promulgating those rules. See Transfer Mot. at 2. Many of the fishermen affected by the challenged regulations, moreover, are located in Massachusetts, and the fish themselves populate the waters off the Bay State's coast. See id. Venue is thus proper in that district. See Trout Unlimited v. Dep't of Agric., 944 F.Supp. 13, 14 (D.D.C.1996) (finding venue proper in the district of Colorado in a case concerning Colorado national forests); Nw. Forest Res. Council v. Babbitt, No. 93–1579, 1994 WL 908586, at *2 (D.D.C. Apr. 13, 1994) (finding venue proper in Western District of Washington for Endangered Species Act action involving West Coast marbled murrelet populations). Because this case could have been brought in Massachusetts, Section 1404(a)'s threshold requirement is satisfied.

B. Private- and Public–Interest Factors

This hurdle cleared, the Court must now decide whether the “particular circumstances” of the case “render [this] forum inappropriate.” Starnes v. McGuire, 512 F.2d 918, 925 (D.C.Cir.1974). Although “plaintiff's choice of forum is normally to be preferred,” id. at 927, there is a “local interest in having localized controversies decided at home.” Am. Dredging Co. v. Miller, 510 U.S. 443, 448, 114 S.Ct. 981, 127 L.Ed.2d 285 (1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). When plaintiffs bring suit in this district to challenge federal decisions affecting natural resources located in other jurisdictions, these principles come into tension.

To reach a satisfactory conclusion, the Court must assess a number of private-and public-interest factors. See Trout Unlimited, 944 F.Supp. at 16. The private-interest factors include: (1) the plaintiff's choice of forum; (2) the defendant's choice of forum; (3) whether the claim arose elsewhere; (4) the convenience of the parties; (5) the convenience of the witnesses; and (6) the ease of access to sources of proof. See id. The public interests relevant to this inquiry are: (1) the transferee's familiarity with the governing laws; (2) the relative congestion of the calendars of the transferor and transferee courts; and (3) the local interest in having local controversies decided at home. See id.

Although no single factor is dispositive in a motion to transfer, the totality of the considerations in this case counsels against granting the Government's Motion. Three of the six private-interest factors weigh against transfer, two are neutral between the two venues, and only Defendants' choice of forum supports sending the case to...