Delacruz v. Tanimura & Antle, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMay 9, 2024
Docket5:23-cv-03034
StatusUnknown

This text of Delacruz v. Tanimura & Antle, Inc. (Delacruz v. Tanimura & Antle, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delacruz v. Tanimura & Antle, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SAN JOSE DIVISION 7 8 DANIEL DELACRUZ, Case No. 23-cv-03034-VKD

9 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT 10 v. QUIRARTE'S MOTION TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT 11 TANIMURA & ANTLE, INC., et al., Re: Dkt. No. 38 Defendants. 12

13 14 Plaintiff Daniel Delacruz, who is representing himself, filed this action against defendants 15 Tanimura & Antle, Inc. (“TAI”), Mike Antle, and Carmen Ponce (collectively, “TAI defendants”) 16 and Claudia Quirarte, asserting, among other things, unlawful disability discrimination under the 17 Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Dkt. No. 1. On prior motions filed by Ms. Quirarte 18 and the TAI defendants, the Court dismissed Mr. Delacruz’s complaint, with leave to amend only 19 as to the ADA claim against Ms. Quirarte. See Dkt. Nos. 28, 29. 20 Mr. Delacruz filed a first amended complaint (“FAC”). Dkt. No. 34. Ms. Quirarte now 21 moves pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6)1 to dismiss the FAC.2 Mr. Delacruz opposes the motion. The 22 Court deemed the motion suitable for determination without oral argument. See Civil L.R. 7-1(b); 23 1 Although Ms. Quirarte also refers to Rule 12(b)(1) as a basis for her present motion to dismiss, 24 certain claims asserted against her arise under federal law. Ms. Quirarte’s arguments for dismissal appear to be more properly characterized as ones under Rule 12(b)(6) and will be addressed as 25 such. Additionally, Ms. Quirarte’s present motion was filed four days late, due to what she says was “a calendaring issue.” Dkt. No. 45 at 1. Although Mr. Delacruz correctly notes that the 26 motion is untimely, there is no indication that he has been prejudiced by the delay in Ms. Quirarte’s filing. 27 1 Dkt. No. 47. Upon consideration of the moving and responding papers, the Court grants Ms. 2 Quirarte’s motion to dismiss the FAC with limited leave to amend.3 3 I. BACKGROUND 4 According to the FAC, Mr. Delacruz has been diagnosed with Fabry Disease, a rare 5 hereditary enzyme deficiency disorder, for which he receives enzyme replacement therapy 6 (“ERT”) “on a regular basis to prevent chronic organ failure and death.” Dkt. No. 34 ¶¶ 13, 15. 7 Ms. Quirarte is identified as a registered nurse, who works at Central Coast Nephrology, the 8 medical facility where Mr. Delacruz received ERT. Id. ¶¶ 6, 28. Defendant TAI is a produce 9 company that employed Mr. Delacruz from about April 1988 to July 1996. See id. ¶¶ 7, 13 & Ex. 10 1 at ECF 19. Defendant Mike Antle is identified as an “owner, employee, and a Vice President” 11 of TAI. Id. ¶ 8. Defendant Carmen Ponce is alleged to be TAI’s “Vice President of Human 12 Resources and Assistant General Counsel[.]” Id. ¶ 9. 13 In 1998, Mr. Delacruz sued TAI and Mr. Antle in state court for race discrimination. Id. 14 ¶ 14. The parties resolved the matter and entered into a settlement agreement. Id. & Ex. 1. 15 According to Mr. Delacruz, as part of that settlement, the TAI defendants agreed not to harass 16 him. Id. Mr. Delacruz claims that the TAI defendants have breached that agreement by, among 17 other things, “disseminat[ing] to various people, including Claudia Quirarte, falsehoods including 18 that [he] ‘filed a lot of complaints that went nowhere’ and that [he] is ‘not disabled.’” Id. ¶ 22; see 19 also id. ¶ 27. 20 Mr. Delacruz alleges that his “hereditary disorder was well known to [Mr.] Antle and [Ms.] 21 Ponce.” Id. ¶ 18. For example, he says that on one occasion, apparently at a time when he was 22 still employed by TAI, Rick Antle (identified as TAI’s president, now deceased) was in a break 23 room eating one of TAI’s salad products with heavy dressing. See id.; see also Dkt. No. 1 ¶¶ 21, 24 22. When Mr. Delacruz commented, “[B]e careful, that stuff can give you a heart attack,” Rick 25 Antle reportedly replied, “[Y]ou’re the one that needs to worry about that stuff!” Dkt. No. 34 26 ¶¶ 18, 19. According to Mr. Delacruz, Rick Antle’s response was a gloating reference to his 27 1 enzyme deficiency disorder and an indication that Rick Antle believed that he would outlive Mr. 2 Delacruz. Id. 3 The FAC alleges that years later, in 2018, Rick Antle passed away. Id. ¶ 19. In 2019, 4 during one of Mr. Delacruz’s ERT procedures, Mr. Delacruz “recited Rick Antle’s malevolent 5 gloat made towards [Mr. Delacruz] and the irony of Rick Antle’s death[.]” Id. ¶ 20. Ms. Quirarte 6 allegedly overheard Mr. Delacruz’s comment and repeated it to defendants Mike Antle and Ms. 7 Ponce. Id. Mr. Delacruz alleges that this “further enraged the visceral contempt that [Mr.] Antle 8 and [Ms.] Ponce have towards [him]” and caused them “to interfere with [Mr. Delacruz]’s health 9 services to fulfill the death threats that [he] had been receiving from TAI’s employees[.]” Id. ¶ 21. 10 Mr. Delacruz alleges that, in addition to telling Ms. Quirarte falsehoods about him, Mr. 11 Antle and Ms. Ponce “solicited [Ms.] Quirarte to obtain a sample of [Mr. Delacruz]’s blood for 12 nefarious purposes,” e.g., “for analysis to dispute [Mr. Delacruz]’s disability based on their 13 documented history of fraudulently disputing his disability.” Id. ¶ 22. Mr. Antle and Ms. Ponce 14 allegedly “also solicited [Ms.] Quirarte to interfere with [Mr. Delacruz]’s ERT procedures by 15 deceitfully leaving out the medication from [his] [intravenous] IV bags,” “caus[ing] [Mr. 16 Delacruz]’s various organ functions to deteriorate over time including his central nervous system 17 resulting in tremors to his hands and loss of dexterity.” Id. ¶ 23. 18 The FAC alleges that “[i]n the alternative,” Mr. Antle’s and Ms. Ponce’s “reckless 19 dissemination of falsehoods . . . motivated [Ms.] Quirarte to interfere sua sponte with [Mr. 20 Delacruz]’s ERT medication” and “to obtain a sample of [Mr. Delacruz]’s blood and deliver it to 21 [Mr.] Antle and [Ms.] Ponce sua sponte to dispute [Mr. Delacruz]’s disability.” Id. ¶ 24. Mr. 22 Delacruz says that during one of his medical procedures, in which Ms. Quirarte removed an IV 23 needle from his arm, she “deliberately released the pressure from [his] vein over the injection site 24 and maneuvered the needle out in an exaggerated arching path causing the needle to drip a stream 25 of blood onto the medical pillow” that was supporting his arm. Id. ¶ 30. Ms. Quirarte reportedly 26 never did this before. Id. Rather than comply with protocols requiring that the pillow promptly be 27 disposed “in a medical trash bin that is located in the patient’s treatment area in plain view of [Mr. 1 Delacruz]’s blood back to her work area located in a small room about twenty feet opposite to 2 where [Mr. Delacruz] was seated and placed it on a shelf.” Id. ¶ 31. According to the complaint, 3 Ms. Quirarte previously “never deviated from the proper disposal protocol of used disposable 4 medical pillow cases.” Id. The FAC further alleges that Ms. Quirarte violated Mr. Delacruz’s 5 privacy rights by giving the blood-stained pillowcase “to [Mr.] Antle and [Ms.] Ponce to use for 6 their nefarious purposes.” Id. ¶ 32. 7 Additionally, the FAC alleges that during an April 2021 ERT procedure, Ms. Quirarte 8 “contemptuously star[ed]” at Mr. Delacruz and “snidely remarked . . . ‘Look, he’s going to start 9 complaining!’” Id. ¶ 29. Mr. Delacruz says that “[w]henever possible, [he] would change his 10 schedule for his ERT procedures so that a different nurse would prepare his medication in an 11 attempt to avoid [Ms.] Quirarte.” Id. Ms. Quirarte, however, allegedly “would also adjust her 12 work schedule to remain as [Mr. Delacruz]’s nurse.” Id. 13 The FAC further alleges that after Mr. Antle and Ms. Ponce “disseminated to [Ms.] 14 Quirarte their fraudulent dispute” regarding his disability, and Ms. Quirarte made a “snide 15 comment to [Mr. Delacruz] that he did not look disabled,” Ms.

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Delacruz v. Tanimura & Antle, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delacruz-v-tanimura-antle-inc-cand-2024.