ELR Citation: ELR 20041
No(s). 83-7456 (11th Cir. Aug 27, 1984)

The court holds that Alabama's statute regulating Mobile County's waste management system is not unconstitutional on its face, but that the County Commission denied plaintiffs due process by failing to notify them when the Commission would vote on their landfill permit application. The court first hold that the statute is not unconstitutionally vague. The court next holds that the statute itself does not violate substantive due process requirements. The statute's requirement that a permit applicant's proposed operations not adversely affect net revenues of the county's solid waste system achieves a valid state purpose. The court also rejects plaintiffs' taking claim for lack of proof of diminished value or loss of sole productive use. Defendants' failure to give plaintiffs notice of the meeting at which their permit was denied, however, is a violation of plaintiffs' due process rights and renders the action taken at the meeting void. Finally, the failure of a political enemy of one plaintiff no excuse himself during Commission consideration of plaintiffs' application was improper, but apparently did not affect the actions of the Commission.

Counsel for Appellants
Vincent F. Kilborn III
Kilborn & Gibney
1206 Dauphin St., Mobile AL 36604
(205) 433-1681

Counsel for Appellees
Richard D. Horne
Hess, Atchison & Horne
P.O. Box 1706, Mobile AL 36633
(205) 432-4546

Before KRAVITCH and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges, and ALLGOOD^*, District Judge.