Diamary Reyes Ayala v. Spring Ridge LP, et al.

District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided August 14, 2026·No. 5:26-cv-02574·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

DIAMARY REYES AYALA, : Plaintiff, : : v. : CIVIL ACTION NO. 26-CV-2574 : SPRING RIDGE LP, et al., : Defendants. :

MEMORANDUM HENRY, J. August 14, 2026

Plaintiff Diamary Reyes Ayala filed this pro se civil rights action, raising claims under the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and related state law claims based on a dispute about her lease renewal terms at the Spring Ridge Apartments. For the following reasons, the Court will dismiss the Complaint. I. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS1 Ayala, “a Hispanic woman of Puerto Rican national origin, a single mother, and the sole head of a household that includes a minor daughter with a documented disability,” brings this case on behalf of herself and her minor daughter. Compl. at 1. She names Spring Ridge LP, RP Management, Inc., Assistant Community Manager Chantelle Wotring, RP Management President Steven Sidewater, and RP Management Vice President Lorinda Willner2 as defendants. Id. at 3.

1 Ayala’s Complaint (“Compl.”) consists of fourteen typewritten pages of factual allegations, see ECF No. 2, and eighty-six pages of attached exhibits, see ECF No. 2-1. The Court considers the entire submission to constitute the Complaint and adopts the sequential pagination assigned by the CM/ECF docketing system. The factual allegations set forth in this Memorandum are taken from Complaint. Where the Court quotes from the Complaint, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization errors will be cleaned up.

2 Ayala names Wotring, Sidewater, and Willner in their individual and official capacities. (Compl. at 1, 3.) The official capacity claims against them are not cognizable because their She alleges that Spring Ridge LP is the “owner and landlord of Spring Ridge Apartments” and RP Management is the company “responsible for the administration, leasing, and management of Spring Ridge Apartments, and employs and supervises the individual Defendants named.” Id. She claims that on or about March 1, 2020, she entered into a lease agreement with Spring Ridge for an apartment located in Whitehall, Pennsylvania (“the apartment”) for a monthly rate of $1,195.

Id. She attached a copy of the lease for the apartment to the Complaint. ECF No. 2-1 at 1-32. An individual named Sigfredo Lugo Ramos was also on the lease agreement.3 Id.; see also Compl. at 4. In November 2020, Ayala and her daughter obtained a Final Protection From Abuse (“PFA”) Order in state court against Ramos, which directed that Ramos was “completely evicted and excluded” from the apartment. Compl. at 3-4. Ayala “personally delivered a copy of the Final PFA Order to the Spring Ridge management office” on November 25, 2020, id. at 4, and attached a copy of the PFA Order to her Complaint. ECF No. 2-1 at 35-39. She claims Defendant Wotring “refused to take any remedial action” and “expressly stated that the matter” was between Ayala and the court. Compl. at 4. Wotring advised her that because Ramos remained on the lease, “he

could receive a key and pool access upon request – in direct disregard of the active judicial exclusion order.” Id. Ayala has made six separate requests to Defendants to remove Ramos from

employer, RP Management, is a private entity and a named defendant. See Kreis v. Northampton Cnty. Prison, No. 21-cv-2360, 2022 WL 4236692, at *8 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 14, 2022) (stating that official capacity claims are “inapplicable to suits against private parties where the entity is also susceptible to suit” (citation omitted)). The official capacity claims against the individual defendants are duplicative of the claims against their employer, RP Management, and will be dismissed. See Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165 (1985) (explaining that even if official capacity suits against individuals who work for private companies are cognizable, the suit would, in effect, be one against the company for whom that individual works).

3 The copy of the lease she attached reflects “Diamarys Reyes” as the “resident” and “Sigfredo Lugo” as her “spouse.” ECF No. 2-1 at 3-4. The Court will refer to Sigfredo Lugo Ramos as “Ramos” and Diamary Reyes Ayala as “Ayala” since those are the names she has provided in her Complaint. Compl. at 1. the lease, but “[e]ach request was refused or deflected.” Id. For instance, in 2022 when she requested Ramos’s name to be removed from the lease, Defendants required that he “appear in person at the management office as a condition of his removal” even though “[t]his requirement was impossible to satisfy given the active PFA order excluding him from the premises.” Id. Ayala asserts that during the lease renewal cycles from 2022 through 2025, Defendants required her to

execute the renewal documents listing Ramos “as an active leaseholder, under threat of non- renewal and eviction.” Id. She alleges on August 5, 2025, she “requested a copy of her current lease agreement for purposes of government verification,” which Wotring allegedly “declined, stating she could only provide the renewal letter.” Id. at 5. Defendants imposed a further condition for “income verification requiring proof of earnings equal to three times the monthly rent.” Id. at 4. She claims the income verification requirement was “never imposed in any prior renewal cycle, and was applied exclusively in response to [her] protected-class status and her continued requests for safety accommodations.” Id. She also takes issue that her minor daughter’s name was listed on the lease renewal. Id. at 5. She attached emails between her and Wotring to her Complaint that

appear to be similar to this referenced conversation, although the email dates are reflected as February 2, 2026. ECF No. 2-1 at 44-48. In the emails, Wotring responded to Ayala’s request to take Ramos off the lease for a government agency verification by explaining that to remove him, she will need updated income to show that she has three times the amount of rent. Id. at 44. Ayala responded that she would just like her current lease agreement printed, which Wotring printed for her and reiterated that the lease was from 2020, and Ramos was still listed on it. Id. at 44-47. The attached emails also reflect that Wotring sent Ayala a separate email on February 2, 2026, letting her know that her lease was up for renewal that month and reminded her that Ramos could only be taken off the lease if her most recent paystub reflects three times the amount of rent, and that she sent a follow up email reminding her about the lease renewal on February 5, 2026. Id. at 46, 51. Ayala next asserts on February 9, 2026, Wotring notified her “that her lease renewal deadline was February 20, 2026, and that failure to sign would result in conversion to month-to- month tenancy at a higher rate.” Compl. at 5. She responded that same date that she was willing to

sign the lease renewal and requested the link. Id. Ayala also requested the company’s policy that required the income verification and a copy of the proposed addendum and revised lease terms. Id. On February 10, 2026, Wotring responded in writing that that “[t]he new lease will not generate until [her] lease renewal is signed,” which Ayala claims required her to “execute a binding legal document without first reviewing its contents.” Id. at 4. She attached these email communications to her Complaint, and it appears Wotring responded to Ayala’s February 9 request for the lease renewal and sent it shortly after she requested it. ECF No. 2-1 at 52-53. The attached emails on February 9, 2026, also reflect that Ayala responded to Wotring after she sent the lease renewal attachment and requested a standard lease renewal under the existing terms of her current lease.

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