City and County of San Francisco, a Municipal Corporation v. United States of America

In May 1976 the Department of the Navy awarded a five-year renewable lease of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to Triple A Machine Shop, Inc., a private ship repair company. The City and County of San Francisco, a disappointed bidder, filed suit in district court seeking a declaration that the lease was void, an injunction ordering the Navy to readminister the leasing process, and damages. The City alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the Navy’s own leasing procedures. It sought damages on theories of conspiracy, conflict of interest, misrepresentation and negligence.

The district court granted summary judgment for the federal defendants on the NEPA and Coastal Zone Management Act claims, and dismissed all but one of the remaining claims under Rule 12(b), Fed.R. Civ.P. 443 F.Supp. 1116 . It denied defendants’ motion to dismiss and for summary judgment on a claim predicated on the Freedom of Information Act, but the City later withdrew this claim.

We affirm the district court’s rulings on all except the withdrawn claim, which is not before us. We discuss four issues, the first because it was the most strongly…