Cainhoy Athletic Soccer Club v. Town of Mount Pleasant

225 F. Supp. 3d 514, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188472, 2016 WL 8116886
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Carolina
DecidedMay 12, 2016
DocketCivil Action No. 2:15-4917-RMG
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 225 F. Supp. 3d 514 (Cainhoy Athletic Soccer Club v. Town of Mount Pleasant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cainhoy Athletic Soccer Club v. Town of Mount Pleasant, 225 F. Supp. 3d 514, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188472, 2016 WL 8116886 (D.S.C. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

Richard Mark Gergel, United States District Court Judge

This matter is before the Court on Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 5). For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants summary judgment for Defendants.

I. Background

The Town of Mount Pleasant, through its recreation department (“MPRD”), offers various recreational soccer programs to youth. In 2012, Mount Pleasant outsourced its selective or “elite” youth soccer programs1 to the Mount Pleasant Soccer Booster Club, Inc. (the “Booster Club,” then doing business under the name South Carolina United Mount Pleasant (“SCUMP”)). The agreement between Mount Pleasant and SCUMP included mutual exclusivity provisions: SCUMP agreed not to compete with MPRD’s non-selective soccer programs, and Mount Pleasant agreed not to allow other soccer clubs to use MPRD fields. SCUMP subsequently changed its trade name to United Soccer Academy Mount Pleasant (“US-AMP”).

Plaintiff Cainhoy Athletic Soccer Club (“Cainhoy”) requested that Mount Pleasant provide it the same use of MPRD fields as provided to USAMP. Mount Pleasant declined because of the exclusivity provision in its contract with USAMP. On October 28, 2015, Plaintiff filed the present action against Mount Pleasant, the mayor, the members of the town council, and MPRD’s recreation director alleging that the exclusivity provision of the agreement between Mount Pleasant and US-AMP violates Plaintiffs equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by unconstitutionally discriminating against soccer clubs other than USAMP. Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and actual and punitive damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

II. Legal Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate if a party “shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact” and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A material fact is one “that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law.” Spriggs v. Diamond Auto Glass, 242 F.3d 179, 183 (4th Cir. 2001) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). Disputes of material fact are genuine if, based on the evidence, “a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. In other words, summary judgment should be granted “only when it is clear that there is no dispute concerning either the facts of the controversy or the inferences to be drawn from those facts.” Pulliam Inv. Co. v. Cameo Props., 810 F.2d 1282, 1286 (4th Cir. 1987). “In determining whether a genuine issue has been raised, the court must construe all inferences and ambiguities in [517]*517favor of the nonmoving party,” Health-South Rehab. Hosp. v. Am. Nat’l Red Cross, 101 F.3d 1005, 1008 (4th Cir. 1996), but it must also “prevent factually unsupported claims and defenses from proceeding to trial,” Drewitt v. Pratt, 999 F.2d 774, 778-79 (4th Cir. 1993) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The party seeking summary judgment shoulders the initial burden of demonstrating to the court that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the moving party has made this threshold demonstration, the non-moving party, to survive the motion for summary judgment, may not rest on the allegations averred in his pleadings. Id. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. Rather, the non-moving party must demonstrate that specific, material facts exist that give rise to a genuine issue. Id. Under this standard, “[cjonclusory or speculative allegations do not suffice, nor does a ‘mere scintilla of evidence’ ” in support of the non-moving party’s case. Thompson v. Potomac Elec. Power Co., 312 F.3d 645, 649 (4th Cir. 2002) (quoting Phillips v. CSX Transp., Inc., 190 F.3d 285, 287 (4th Cir. 1999)).

III. Statement of Facts

A. Youth Soccer Organizations and Programs

Cainhoy is a non-profit corporation formed in December 2008. S.C. Sec’y of State Filings, available at http://www.sos. sc.gov. Until recently, Plaintiff operated four youth soccer programs: Little Kickers, Junior Academy, Select, and Premier. Little Kickers was a program for children three to eight years old.2 Cainhoy Athletic (Apr. 12, 2016) [https://web.archive.org/ web/20160412120712/http://cainhoyathletic. com/]. In May 2016, Cainhoy renamed this as “Micro Academy.” Cainhoy Athletic, http://cainhoyathletic.com (last visited May 3, 2016). Junior Academy is a selective program for children from seven to eleven years old. Id. Select was a selective program for children aged twelve and over. Cainhoy Athletic (Apr. 12, 2016) [https:// web.archive.org/web/20160412120712/ http://cainhoyathletic.com/]. Premier is Ca-inhoy’s program for the “most competitive players in limited age groups/genders.” Id. The Select program may have been recently folded into the Premier program in May 2016. Compare Cainhoy Athletic (Apr. 12, 2016) [https://web.archive.org/web/ 20160412120712 /http://cainhoyathletic. com/] with Cainhoy Athletic, http://cainhoy athletic.com (last visited May 3, 2016). Registration and club fees and were $200 or $250 per year (depending on player age) for Little Kickers, $350 for Junior Academy and for Select, and $550 for Premier. Cainhoy Athletic (Apr. 12, 2016) [https:// web.archive.org/web/20160412120712/ http://cainhoyathletic.com/].3 Competition costs, e.g. tournament and league fees, travel costs, and uniforms, are not included in club fees. Id. Need-based financial assistance is available on request through an [518]*518honor system—Cainhoy does not review family’s personal financial information. Id. Cainhoy was organized to provide “opportunities for the youth of our region (primarily East Cooper) to participate, in organized programs of quality soccer at low cost.” (Aff. of David Tunesi ¶ 2, Apr. 4, 2016, Dkt. No. 12-1.) In addition to providing soccer- at an affordable cost, Cainhoy was also founded to “help [Berkeley County] area parents who once took a 45-min-ute trek to Mount Pleasant’s crowded practice fields.” Jessica Johnson, Cainhoy parents team up for new soccer club, Post & Courier (July 16, 2009) (contemporaneous news report on founding of Cainhoy). Now, Cainhoy has 904 players, of whom 739 are Mount Pleasant residents. (Tunesi Aff.

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225 F. Supp. 3d 514, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188472, 2016 WL 8116886, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cainhoy-athletic-soccer-club-v-town-of-mount-pleasant-scd-2016.