Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals holds Uniform Relocation Act does not create a private cause of action

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found last month that the Uniform Relocation Act does not create a private cause of action against the displacing agency. In Osher v. City of St. Louis, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 25277, 2018 WL 4231794 (8^th Cir. September 6^th, 2018), the Eighth Circuit indicated that “Insofar as [the Eighth Circuit’s previous ruling in] Tullock [v. State Highway Commission, 507 F.2d 712, 11 V.I. 497 (8th Cir. 1974),] recognized a private cause of action under the Act, it has been superseded by intervening precedent.” Relying on Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 283, 122 S. Ct. 2268, 153 L. Ed. 2d 309 (2002), the court went on to state that “Because the Act is phrased as a directive to the regulated agency, the Act lacks “the sort of ‘rights-creating’ language critical to showing the requisite congressional intent to create new rights.”        This ruling is in accord with the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Clear Sky Car Wash LLC v. City of Chesapeake, 743 F.3d 438, 444 (4^th Cir. 2014) and the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Delancey v. City of Austin, 570 F.3d 590 (5^th Cir. 2009), which both also found that the Uniform Relocation Act does not create a private cause of action against the displacing agency.