United States Eighth Circuit

In an action brought by a provider of commercial aeronautical services raising equal protection and substantive due process claims related to its activities at a municipal airport, summary judgment and various discovery rulings in favor of defendants are affirmed where: 1) for purposes of an equal protection claim, any difference in "standards" applied to the various entities at issue was rationally grounded in defendant-city's legitimate interest in setting different terms for parties that served different functions at different times, or in protecting the city's sources of airport revenue; 2) a substantive due process claim failed for the same reasons; 3) there was no abuse of discretion in declining to order a forensic analysis of a computer; and 4) a discovery dispute concerning damages was moot. Rejection of defendants' counterclaim for breach of contract and a motion for sanctions is affirmed on cross-appeal as: 1) the city waived its right to object to fifteen years of uninterrupted behavior by plaintiff under the contract; and 2) there was no abuse of discretion in denying sanctions.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/04/2008
• Published 03/04/2008

Judges

• COLLOTON, Circuit Judge., Before COLLOTON, BEAM, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Rex A. Hammarback, argued, East Grand Forks, MN (Matthew F. Shimanek, on the brief) for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Randall J. Bakke, argued, Bismarck, ND (Jonathan P. Sanstead and Tiffany L. Johnson, on the brief), for appellees Sauter, Fetch, Scherr and OnStar Management Inc.; (Gary Wolberg, on the brief), for appellees Simmers, Simson Investment Co., Aarestad and Aircraft Management Services; (Randall J. Bakke, Shawn Grinolds, on the brief), for appellees, City of Bismarck, ND., Clark J. Bormann, argued, Bismarck, ND, for appellee Cook Leasing.