United States Fifth Circuit

In a suit brought by a farm operator against the Farm Service Agency and the Corps of Engineers seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and damages arising from the FSA's determination that the operator had to return over $100,000 in USDA program benefits due to its wetlands violations, dismissal of the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is affirmed as: 1) 7 U.S.C. section 6912(e) is not a jurisdictional rule but is the codification of a judicially developed requirement, for which there are recognized exceptions and excuses; 2) thus, contrary to the finding below, plaintiff's failure to exhaust remedies did not deprive the court of subject matter jurisdiction; but 3) plaintiff pointed to no basis in the record or reason in law that supported its exception from the administrative exhaustion requirement or that excused its failure to exhaust all such procedures in this case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/16/2007
• Published 10/17/2007

Judges

• DENNIS, Circuit Judge:, Before SMITH, BENAVIDES and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Donald L. Kneipp (argued), Kneipp & Hastings, Monroe, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Janice E. Hebert, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued), Lafayette, LA, for Defendants-Appellees.