Carol Van Strum Paul E. Merrell v. John C. Lawn

Appellants Carol Van Strum and Paul Merrell appeal the district court’s dismissal of their suit against a number of federal and county officials. Appellants assert that federal officials, acting in concert with officials of Lincoln County, Oregon, subjected appellants’ home to frequent and harassing helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft overflights in retaliation for appellants’ public opposition to the use of herbicides on national forest land. In the court below, appellants pursued Bivens claims (Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 , 91 S.Ct. 1999 , 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971)), section 1983 claims ( 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ), and NEPA claims (the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq.). The district court granted appellees’ motions to dismiss and for summary judgment on all counts. The majority of the issues presented in this case are resolved in an unpublished memorandum disposition pursuant to Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. We decide the statute of limitations question raised by appellants’ Bivens claims in this opinion.

I.

Appellants, husband and wife, reside on land abutting the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon. The parcel is approximately 28 acres in…