Board of Education of Harmony School District No. 175 v. St. Clair, Illinois et al

Filing 24

ORDER granting 19 Motion to Dismiss Case for Lack of standing. See order for details. Signed by Chief Judge David R. Herndon on 10/25/12. (klh, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF
HARMONY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 175,
Plaintiff,
v.

No. 3:12-cv-00313-DRH-DGW

COUNTY OF ST. CLAIR, ILLINOIS,
et. al.,
Defendants.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
HERNDON, Chief Judge
I. Introduction and Background
Now before the Court is defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant
to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) (Doc.19) and their memorandum in support of that motion
(Doc. 20), arguing that plaintiff does not have standing to bring its complaint. Plaintiff
opposes the motion by contending that it does have Article III standing under the
Constitution and that prudential standing limitations do not bar its complaint. For
the following reasons, the Court grants defendants’ motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff school district operates a public school system for kindergarten
through eighth grades and is located in St. Clair County, Illinois. It no longer had
sufficient enrollment to use its Harmony School building and planned to lease it to
an entity that is not a party to this litigation (Abraxas) which intended to provide

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special education services to disabled students. The St. Clair County Zoning
Department and its Board of Zoning Appeals denied plaintiff’s requests to use
Harmony School to provide special education services. Plaintiff alleges that due to
this denial, students with disabilities are harmed and plaintiff itself has been denied
reasonable use of its Harmony School property.
In its complaint, plaintiff alleges that defendants have discriminated against
students with disabilities through defendants’ denial of plaintiff’s requests for a
Certificate of Zoning Compliance from the Zoning Department of St. Clair County,
Illinois for the intended use to lease space in Harmony School to a provider of special
education services for students in grades 6-12 (Doc. 2). Further, plaintiff alleges that
because of this denial, it was denied the opportunity to enter the proposed lease
agreement with Abraxas for Harmony School, which would have provided one million
three hundred thousands in funds to the School District. Count I alleges intentional
discrimination under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) by the
Board of Zoning Appeals. Count II alleges disparate impact discrimination under
Title II of the ADA on the face of the St. Clair County Zoning Code. Count III alleges
disparate impact discrimination under Title II of the ADA in applying the St. Clair
County Zoning Code. Count IV alleges failure to make reasonable accommodations
under Title II of the ADA in applying the St. Clair County Zoning Code. Count V
alleges intentional discrimination violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Count VI alleges disparate impact discrimination violating Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act in provisions of the St. Clair County Zoning Code. Count VII
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alleges disparate impact discrimination violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act in applying the St. Clair County Zoning Code. Count VIII alleges failure to make
reasonable modifications violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in applying
the St. Clair County Zoning Code. Count IX alleges denial of equal protection under
the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Count X seeks judicial review
of the administrative decisions pursuant to the Illinois Administrative Review law
(735 ILCS 5/3-101 et seq.).
Plaintiff filed its complaint on April 16, 2012 (Doc. 2). Defendants filed their
motion to dismiss (Doc. 19) and memorandum in support (Doc. 20) on May 21,
2012, arguing that plaintiff’s claims should be dismissed since plaintiff lacks
standing both under Article III of the Constitution and due to judicially-imposed
prudential limitations. Plaintiff filed a response to defendants’ motion to dismiss
(Doc. 22) on June 25, 2012, rebutting defendants’ arguments, and defendants filed
their reply (Doc. 23) on July 9, 2012.
II. Law and Application
A.

PLEADING STANDARD
Defendants’ motion to dismiss is made pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil

Procedure 12(b)(1), which allows a party to raise as a defense, by motion, a federal
court’s lack of subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiff’s claims. Fed. R. Civ. P.
12(b)(1). The Seventh Circuit has stated that although a plaintiff may easily defeat a
Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, the same is not true for
a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Bastien v.
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AT&T Wireless Servs., Inc., 205 F.3d 983, 990 (7th Cir. 2000). When a defendant
makes this challenge, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing jurisdiction. The
court must “accept as true all well-pleaded factual allegations and draw reasonable
inferences in favor of the plaintiff.” St. John’s United Church of Christ v. City of Chi.,
502 F.3d 616, 625 (7th Cir. 2007) (citations omitted). Yet, if necessary, the Court
may also look beyond the jurisdictional allegations to evidence outside the pleadings
to determine whether federal subject matter jurisdiction exists. Id. (citations
omitted).
B.

STANDING REQUIREMENTS
The standing requirements under Article III of the Constitution are well settled;

a plaintiff must allege (1) injury in fact, (2) a causal connection between the injury
and the defendant’s conduct, and (3) likely redressability through a favorable
decision. Disability Rights Wisconsin, Inc. v. Walworth Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors,
522 F.3d 796, 800 (7th Cir. 2008). The injury must be an actual or imminent injury
that is concrete and particularized. Perry v. Sheahan, 222 F.3d 309, 313 (7th Cir.
2000).
In addition to the constitutional limits on standing, courts also impose
prudential limitations on the class of persons who may bring a suit. Massey v.
Helman, 196 F.3d 727, 739 (7th Cir. 1999). The Seventh Circuit has found that such
limitations include “the general prohibition on a litigant’s raising another person’s
legal rights, the rule barring adjudication of generalized grievances more
appropriately addressed in the representative branches, and the requirement that a
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plaintiff’s complaint fall within the zone of interests protected by the law invoked.”
Family & Children’s Ctr., Inc. v. Sch. City of Mishawaka, 13 F.3d 1052, 1059 (7th
Cir. 1994) (citing Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S. Ct. 3315, 3324, 82 L.
Ed. 2d 556 (1984)). Thus, a plaintiff’s claim (1) must fall within the zone of interests
to be protected or regulated by the statute, (2) must not be a generalized grievance,
and (3) must raise his own legal rights and not the rights of some other person.
C.

ADA AND REHABILITATION CLAIMS
1.

Constitutional Standing

In terms of Article III standing regarding plaintiff’s ADA and Rehabilitation Act
claims, the parties dispute whether plaintiff suffered an “injury in fact.” Defendant
claims that plaintiff “purports to bring this case on behalf of a class of individuals
with disabilities, namely students with disabilities,” but has not alleged it has itself
been personally injured in any way (Doc. 20, p. 4). Plaintiff replies that it did suffer
an injury in fact, for it has been denied the reasonable use of its Harmony School
property, which it had intended to lease to Abraxas, Inc., a provider of special
education services (Doc. 22, p. 5). According to the Superintendent of plaintiff school
district, plaintiff and Abraxas had begun negotiating a proposed contract for the lease
of the property (Doc. 22-1, ¶ 6). However, defendant rebuts the effect of these
negotiations by noting that at the time the Zoning Board denied plaintiff’s requests,
Abraxas had already signed a lease for property in a different location and plaintiff
was not in active negotiations to lease its building to any potential user (Doc. 23, ¶¶
3-4; Doc. 23-1, p. 8, ¶¶ 12-23). The fact that plaintiff did not have any plans to lease
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the property to any party does indeed render its alleged injury speculative. Thus, the
Court finds plaintiff’s alleged injury is not an “injury in fact.”
2.

Prudential limitations

Even if plaintiff had met all the Article III requirements for standing, it still
would be precluded from bringing suit by the Seventh Circuit’s prudential
limitations.
a.

Zone of Interests

First, plaintiff’s claims fall outside the zone of interests protected by Title II of
the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. When analyzing whether the plaintiff has met the
“zone of interests” requirement, courts must first determine which interests the
statute protects and then decide whether the plaintiff’s interests are among the
protected interests. Am. Fed’n of Gov’t Emps., Local 2119 v. Cohen, 171 F.3d 460,
469 (7th Cir. 1999). The Court analyzes plaintiff’s ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims
together, as “[c]ourts use the same analysis for claims under the Rehabilitation Act
and Title II of the ADA.” Foley v. City of Lafayette, 359 F.3d 925, 928 (7th Cir.
2004).
Title II states that “[n]o qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason
of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the
services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination
by such entity.” 42 U.S.C. § 12132. There is no language in Title II that expressly
provides that a non-disabled plaintiff may bring a claim on behalf of disabled others.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act proscribes that “[n]o otherwise qualified
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individual with a disability... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be
excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to
discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance
or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United
States Postal Service.” 29 U.S.C. § 794(a). As with Title II of the ADA, there appears
no language in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act that expressly allows a nondisabled plaintiff to raise claims for disabled others.
The Seventh Circuit has noted that generally the protections of the ADA apply
only to a “qualified individual with a disability.” Murdock v. Washington, 193 F.3d
510, 512 (7th Cir. 1999). Although the Seventh Circuit has not ruled on the matter,
some district courts within the Seventh Circuit have held that the ADA allows nondisabled individuals to bring claims of discrimination based on their association with
disabled individuals. 28 C.F.R. § 35.130; see also Baaske v. City of Rolling
Meadows, 191 F.Supp.2d 1009, 1015 (N.D. Ill. 2002); Oak Ridge Care Ctr. v.
Racine Cnty., 896 F.Supp. 867, 872 (E.D. Wis. 1995); Hale v. Pace, 2011 WL
1303369, at *4 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 31, 2011). Courts have also held that associational
discrimination claims may be brought under the Rehabilitation Act. Hale, 2011 WL
1303369, at *4 (citing Loeffler v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp., 582 F.3d 268, 279-80
(2d Cir. 2009)). This judicial district has not addressed this issue. However, the
Northern District of Illinois has held that organizations that serve disabled persons
may sue public entities under Title II of the ADA to assert claims that the public
entity discriminated against the organization based upon its association with
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disabled persons. Baaske, 191 F.Supp.2d at 1015 (citing Access Living of Metro.
Chicago v. Chicago Trans. Auth., 2001 WL 492473, at *3 (N.D. Ill. May, 9, 2001)).
Further, the Northern District of Illinois has held that non-disabled plaintiffs may sue
public entities under Title II of the ADA as long as those plaintiffs allege: (1) a
relationship or association with a disabled person, and (2) “some specific, separate,
and direct injury” that the plaintiff has suffered as a result of his association with the
disabled individual. Baaske, 191 F.Supp.2d at 1016 (quoting Micek v. City of
Chicago, 1999 WL 966970, at *3 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 4, 1999)).
Here, plaintiff is not an organization that serves disabled persons, nor does it
assert that it is, and thus any ruling made by other courts regarding such an
organization is irrelevant. Moreover, plaintiff does not assert that it has a relationship
with the disabled students who are allegedly harmed by defendants’ actions.
Although there may have been the potential for the plaintiff to provide property for
the provision of special education services by another entity, there is nothing in the
complaint that supports that plaintiff has ever had a relationship with the disabled
students it alleges are harmed. Indeed, such students were only ever potential
students of plaintiff’s, and they have never been and are not currently in association
with plaintiff.
The Court thus finds plaintiff’s claims fall outside the statutes’ zone of
interests.
b.

Third Party Claims

Another well-established prudential-standing limitation is the principle that a
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litigant cannot sue in federal court to enforce the rights of third parties. Rawoof v.
Texor Petroleum Co., Inc., 521 F.3d 750, 757 (7th Cir. 2008). However, the Supreme
Court has held that a person may litigate another’s rights in his own cause so long
as three criteria are satisfied: (1) the litigant must have suffered an injury in fact, (2)
the litigant must have a close relationship between himself and the injured party, and
(3) there must exist some hindrance to the third party’s ability to protect his or her
own interest. Marin-Garcia v. Holder, 647 F.3d 666, 670 (7th Cir. 2011) (citing
Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 410-11, 415, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411
(1991)).
As discussed above, the Court finds that plaintiff has not suffered an injury in
fact. Moreover, even if plaintiff had suffered an injury in fact, there has been no
indication that plaintiff has a “close relationship” between itself and the disabled
students who were allegedly harmed. Again, these disabled students were merely
potential students who could have been educated on plaintiff’s property had
plaintiff’s negotiations with Abraxas succeeded and had the defendants approved
plaintiff’s zoning requests. Since neither of those events happened, however, there
never existed a relationship, let alone a close one, between plaintiff and disabled
students.
Therefore, the Court finds plaintiff does not meet the Supreme Court’s
requirements for superseding the rule that it cannot assert the rights of others to
provide the basis for its claims.
D.

EQUAL PROTECTION CLAIM
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Plaintiff lacks standing to bring its equal protection claim pursuant to both the
prudential standing limitations imposed by the Seventh Circuit and the precedent set
by the United States Supreme Court. As mentioned above, the Seventh Circuit
recognizes a prudential standing limitation that bars adjudication of generalized
grievances. Family & Children’s Center, Inc., 13 F.3d at 1059. Further, the Supreme
Court has noted that “[t]he rule against generalized grievances applies with as much
force in the equal protection context as in any other. United States v. Hays, 515 U.S.
737, 743, 115 S. Ct. 2431, 132 L. Ed. 2d 635 (1995). Even if a governmental actor
is discriminating, “the resulting injury ‘accords a basis for standing only to those
persons who are personally denied equal treatment by the challenged discriminatory
conduct.’” Id. at 743-44 (quoting Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 755, 104 S. Ct. 3315,
82 L. Ed. 2d 556 (1984)).
Plaintiff has not been personally denied equal treatment by the defendants’
decisions. Thus, plaintiff’s claim is merely a generalized grievance and is therefore
insufficient to provide plaintiff standing to bring its equal protection claim.
E.

REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW
Defendants ask the Court to decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over

plaintiff’s state law claim for request for judicial review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §
1367(c)(3). Section 1367(c)(3) provides that a district court “may decline to exercise
supplemental jurisdiction over a claim... if the district court has dismissed all claims
over which it has original jurisdiction.” 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3). When determining
whether to retain jurisdiction over state law claims, the district court has broad
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discretion and considers comity, judicial economy, convenience and fairness to the
parties. United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726, 86 S. Ct. 1130, 16 L. Ed.
2d 218 (1966). The general rule is that where the federal claims are dismissed, the
factors indicated in Gibbs require the dismissal of state claims. Wright v. Associated
Ins. Co., 29 F.3d 1244 (7th Cir. 1994). The federal district court’s retention of state
law claims is warranted only in unusual circumstances when (1) the statute of
limitations has expired on the state law claim, (2) substantial judicial resources have
been expended, or (3) it is entirely clear how the state claims will be decided. Id. at
1251.
As none of these rare circumstances exist in the present case, the Court, within
its broad discretion, declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiff’s
claim for request for judicial review. Thus, this claim is also dismissed.
III. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), Court
GRANTS defendants’ motion to dismiss (Doc. 19) and DISMISSES plaintiff’s cause
of action for lack of standing. Further, the Court DIRECTS the Clerk of the Court
to enter judgment reflecting the same.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Signed this 25th day of October, 2012.

Digitally signed by
David R. Herndon
Date: 2012.10.25
13:20:00 -05'00'
Chief Judge
United States District Court

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