Manistee Town Center v. City of Glendale

This appeal arises from a dispute between the owner of a shopping center and the local city government over the most appropriate uses to be made of the center. Manistee Town Center, the owner of a shopping center in Glendale, Arizona, appeals from the district court’s dismissal of Manistee’s federal claims against the City of Glendale and four of its officials. Man-istee brought this action after the City and several of its officials lobbied Maricopa County, Arizona, not to lease space from Manistee for a county justice center. • After negotiations between the County and Manistee fell apart, Manistee sued, alleging that the defendants’ lobbying of the County had deprived Manistee of its property (potential lease contracts) without due process of law in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Manistee further claimed that the defendants had conspired to deny Manis-tee equal protection of the law in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985 . The district court dismissed both of Manistee’s claims pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) on the ground that the defendants’ activities were immunized under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine. See Eastern R.R. Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U.S.…