Brower v. Village of Bolingbrook

735 F. Supp. 768, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2220, 1990 WL 52135
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedFebruary 28, 1990
Docket89 C 2052
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 735 F. Supp. 768 (Brower v. Village of Bolingbrook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brower v. Village of Bolingbrook, 735 F. Supp. 768, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2220, 1990 WL 52135 (N.D. Ill. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MORAN, District Judge.

The plaintiffs challenge the Village of Bolingbrook’s ordinance that requires landlords and property managers to consent to and pay for an inspection whenever they rent to new residential tenants and, further, that prospective tenants procure a “Rent/Lease Permit” before they may occupy a dwelling. We- have before us Bolingbrook’s motion to dismiss. For the following reasons, the motion is denied.

FACTS

Plaintiff American National Bank and Trust Company (the Bank) holds title to an apartment complex in Bolingbrook that is managed exclusively by plaintiff Inland Property Management, Inc., (Inland). They join with five individual tenants (the tenants) in asserting broadly that the provisions of Bolingbrook’s Ordinance 88-44 violate rights under the Constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of the State of Illinois. In Count I, the tenants assert that the ordinance violates their rights to privacy and equal protection and impinges on their rights to travel and live in a dwelling. They ask that we declare the ordinance unconstitutional and enjoin its enforcement. Inland and the Bank seek the same relief in Count II, where, after repeating the allegations of Count I, they further contend that the ordinance violates their rights to equal protection and to be free of unreasonable searches. Pursuant to the ordinance Inland is collecting $80 from each new tenant to pay Bolingbrook’s fee for inspecting each rental unit. In Count III, Inland asks our permission to place these funds in escrow while the lawsuit is pending and return the money to tenants if we determine that the ordinance is invalid.

*770 We cannot discern from the record the full scope and meaning of the challenged ordinance, which is codified as Chapter 27, Article 2, of the Bolingbrook Municipal Code, as we can interpret some provisions only by referring to sections of the Code that the parties have not attached to their pleadings. It is clear, however, that the ordinance makes it illegal to rent any dwelling unit unless two conditions are met. First, the landlord must obtain a “compliance letter” from Bolingbrook’s Development Services Department. The landlord may obtain the letter only by notifying Bolingbrook of a “change in occupancy” and then consenting to an administrative search. Bolingbrook officials are forbidden to issue the compliance letter unless the dwelling complies with all sections of “this Chapter,” which apparently includes Bolingbrook’s entire housing and building code. 1 The compliance letter is good for only 60 days. The ordinance first provided for a $40 fee for each inspection. Bolingbrook later raised the fee to $80 for apartments, while retaining the $40 fee for single family residences.

The second condition restricts landlords by permitting them to rent only to tenants who seek official licenses from the Village of Bolingbrook. Prospective tenants must complete and sign an application for a “Rent/Lease Permit” before landlords may legally rent a residence. The ordinance provides that Bolingbrook will issue the permit “following investigation to insure compliance with the provisions of this Chapter.” When issued, the permit includes the following information that the tenants presumably must provide when they apply: the names, ages, relationships, and number of people who will live in the residence. When new members join an existing household, they must add their own personal information to the Rent/Lease Permit. 2 It is not clear whether Bolingbrook also requires a new inspection when a new member joins an existing household, as “change in occupancy” is defined in a section of the Code that is not before us.

Any person who fails to comply with the terms of the ordinance, even by neglect or omission, is subject to a fine of up to $1000 for each offense. Each day that the ordinance is violated constitutes a separate offense.

DISCUSSION

Bolingbrook has moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim and for lack of standing. As a preliminary matter, we note that discussion of this complaint is complicated by the fact that plaintiffs have lumped all the individual tenants’ claims into Count I and all the claims of the . Bank and Inland into Count II. With regard to the claims of the tenants, the parties have concentrated their arguments on the issues of standing and justiciability. In moving to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action, Bolingbrook appears to challenge the entire complaint, yet its argument addresses only some of the separate claims. In considering this portion of defendant’s motion, we bear in mind that a complaint should be dismissed for failure to state a claim only when it appears “beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

1. Standing

A. Tenants’ Claims

In moving to dismiss the claims of the individual tenants as nonjusticiable, Bolingbrook asserts three related arguments. It first contends that the tenants have failed to allege that they have not complied with the ordinance or that they do not intend to comply in the future. It thus *771 concludes that there is no case or controversy between the tenants and Bolingbrook and that the tenants therefore cannot seek the declaratory judgment and injunction that they request in Count I. Second, Bolingbrook asserts that the tenants are seeking an advisory opinion regarding the ordinance’s future applicability to activity that the tenants have not alleged will ever occur. Third, Bolingbrook contends that the tenants’ claim is moot because they already rented in Bolingbrook and have not alleged that they intend to move to other units in Bolingbrook nor otherwise alleged that the ordinance will affect them in the future.

We note first that the tenants have not even alleged that they have obtained Rent/Lease Permits or otherwise been subjected to the constraints of the ordinance. They have not asserted that they reside in apartments managed by Inland, nor that they reside in Bolingbrook or intend to move to or within Bolingbrook in the future. When read in isolation, the complaint provides little support for the tenants’ bid for standing.

We do not read the complaint in isolation, however, because our file also contains defendant’s answer to plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order. There, Bolingbrook states that the individual tenants have complied with the provisions of the challenged ordinance 3 but that Inland has refused to pay the inspection fees. We thus consider the motion to dismiss as though the complaint alleged these additional facts.

As the tenants have been subjected to an ordinance that they assert violates their constitutional and statutory rights, they have alleged injury in fact and would certainly have standing to seek, at a minimum, retrospective relief.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
735 F. Supp. 768, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2220, 1990 WL 52135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brower-v-village-of-bolingbrook-ilnd-1990.