Abdus-Sabur v. Corrections Corporation of America

221 F. Supp. 3d 3, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177233
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedDecember 22, 2016
DocketCivil Action No. 2016-0156
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 221 F. Supp. 3d 3 (Abdus-Sabur v. Corrections Corporation of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abdus-Sabur v. Corrections Corporation of America, 221 F. Supp. 3d 3, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177233 (D.D.C. 2016).

Opinion

*6 MEMORANDUM OPINION

REGGIE B. WALTON, United States District Judge

The plaintiff, Jason Abdus-Sabur, “an individual who lacks any functionality in his lower extremities!!,] has limited use of his upper extremities, [and] is confined to a wheelchair,” First Amended Complaint (“Compl”) ¶ 1, brought this action against the defendants, Hope Village, Inc. (“Hope Village”), the Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”), and the District of Columbia (the “District”), asserting violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-34 (2012), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (2012), the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601, and the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act (“Human Rights Act”), D.C. Code § 2-1401.01 (2015), id. ¶3. Currently pending before the Court are Defendant Corrections Corporation of America’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint (“CCA’s Mot.”), ECF No. 22, and Defendant Hope Village’s Motion to Dismiss First Amended Complaint (“Hope Village’s Mot.”), ECF No. 24, both seeking dismissal of the First Amended Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) (“Rule 12(b)(6)”). Upon careful consideration of the parties’ submissions, and for the reasons that follow, the Court will grant both the CCA’s and Hope Village’s motions to dismiss the plaintiffs claims against them. 1

I. BACKGROUND

The following factual background is asserted in the plaintiffs First Amended Complaint. In 2011, the plaintiff, “a quadriplegic who requires a wheelchair to move and live as independently as possible,” Compl. ¶ 12, was sentenced “to a prison term of seventy (70) months for a nonviolent offense,” and was placed in two Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) “facilities, first in Rochester, Minnesota, and later in Springfield, Missouri,” id. ¶ 13. When the plaintiff “became eligible for pre-release placement in a halfway house” in 2014, “he requested such a placement ... because he desired to live in a residential neighborhood, where he could adjust to living with a disability outside of the institutional context, learn to do everyday activities for himself, and secure a job as well as housing.” Id. ¶ 16. “In or prior to August 2014, the BOP referred [the plaintiff] for pre-release placement at Hope Village, a halfway house in the District of Columbia,” id. ¶ 17, that is “a privately-owned corporation that contracts with” the BOP, id. ¶ 18, “for the last several months of [the plaintiffs] prison term,” id. ¶ 17. Hope Village accepted the plaintiff for a five month residency. See id. ¶¶ 1,17.

“Upon his arrival at Hope Village, [the plaintiff] was assigned to live in one of the apartment units ... that was designed to be accessible for people who use wheelchairs.” Id. ¶ 27. However, the shower in the plaintiffs apartment unit

had an architectural barrier [that] restricted the plaintiffs] access to the shower and created] a substantial risk of injury. That is, the threshold to the shower had a lip or a short stair-like barrier that precluded [the plaintiff] from maneuvering his wheelchair into *7 the shower so that he could transfer safely from his wheel chair to the shower bench.

Id. Because of this architectural barrier, the plaintiff “fell on two occasions while transferring from the shower of his residential unit back into his wheelchair, and required medical treatment for the injuries he suffered.” Id. ¶28. On September 5, 2014, the plaintiff was transferred to the Correctional Treatment Facility in the southeast quadrant of the District of Columbia, where he remained “until January 30, 2015, when he was discharged from custody.” Id. ¶ 29.

While at the Correctional Treatment Facility, the plaintiff “was forced to utilize unsafe shower and toilet facilities [and] fell on approximately sixteen (16) separate occasions ... while trying to either use the restroom or take a shower.” Id ¶ 36. “After several of his falls, [the plaintiff] told ... [the Correctional Treatment Facility] that he would be able to shower more safely if the facility had better equipment, such as a waterproof wheelchair .Id. ¶ 42. The Correctional Treatment Facility did not provide the requested “reasonable accommodations so that [the plaintiff] would not continue to suffer physical injuries and humiliation.” Id. ¶ 43.

On January 29, 2016, the plaintiff filed a Complaint against Hope Village, the CCA, and the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, alleging disability discrimination in violation of the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Human Rights Act. Id ¶¶ 1, 4. On March 2, 2016, each of the defendants moved to dismiss the plaintiffs original complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). See generally Defendant Hope Village’s Motion to Dismiss Complaint (Mar. 2, 2016), ECF No. 16; Defendant Corrections Corporation of America’s Motion to Dismiss (Mar. 2, 2016), ECF No. 13; Defendant Department of Corrections’ Motion to Dismiss (Mar. 2, 2016), ECF No. 12. In response, on March 21, 2016, the plaintiff amended his Complaint to include additional allegations against defendants CCA and Hope Village, to remove the District of Columbia Department of Corrections as a named defendant, and to assert claims against the District. 2 Defendants Hope Village and the CCA now move again to dismiss the plaintiffs First Amended Complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) tests whether the complaint properly “state[s] a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Rule 8(a) requires only that a complaint provide “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). But although “detailed factual allegations” are not required, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)), a plaintiff must provide “more than an unadorned, the-defen-danUunlawfully-harmed-me accusation,” id. Rather, the “complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Id. (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. *8 at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

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221 F. Supp. 3d 3, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abdus-sabur-v-corrections-corporation-of-america-dcd-2016.