Dog Pound, LLC v. City of Monroe

913 F. Supp. 2d 426, 2012 WL 6632211, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183385
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedNovember 30, 2012
DocketCase No. 09-13104
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 913 F. Supp. 2d 426 (Dog Pound, LLC v. City of Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dog Pound, LLC v. City of Monroe, 913 F. Supp. 2d 426, 2012 WL 6632211, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183385 (E.D. Mich. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DISMISSING CASE

DAVID M. LAWSON, District Judge.

The plaintiff originally sued the City of Monroe over provisions in a city ordinance that effectively prohibited the plaintiffs proposed operation of a portable hotdog vending business in highly-trafficked areas of the City’s downtown district, which the ordinance described as a “restricted area.” While the lawsuit was pending, the City amended its ordinance to delete some, but not all, of the provisions the plaintiff found offensive. The plaintiff applied for a preliminary injunction, which the Court denied in a written opinion that discussed the facts and the history and terms of the ordinance. Dog Pound, LLC v. City of Monroe, 2011 WL 2669656 (E.D.Mich. July 8, 2011). Thereafter, the parties engaged in extensive talks in an effort to settle the case, without success. The plaintiff also filed an amended complaint, and later a second amended complaint, raising claims under the Equal Protection Clause, the Dormant Commerce Clause, and the Due Process Clause, seeking a declaratory judgment that the ordinance’s restrictions violate the Constitution and do not apply to the plaintiff, a writ of mandamus ordering the City to issue a license to operate the cart without restrictions, and money damages for lost profits during the time the plaintiff allegedly has been unable to operate the cart in the city due to the ordinance.

The City has moved for summary judgment. The Court heard oral argument on November 20, 2012. In its response to the motion, the plaintiff appears to have stepped back from its claim under the Due Process Clause, and continues to press its equal protection and Dormant Commerce Clause claims, despite the Court’s rejection of those arguments in its prior opinion. The Court now concludes that the City of Monroe’s ordinances as applied to the plaintiffs permitting efforts does not offend the Constitution, and the plaintiffs claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 must fail. Therefore, the Court will grant the City’s [429]*429motion for summary judgment and dismiss the case.

I.

The facts of the case have been set out in the Court’s previous opinion, referenced above, and need not be repeated here. In that opinion, the Court held that the amended ordinance did not violate either the Equal Protection or Dormant Commerce clauses. The Court also noted that the plaintiff might have a claim under the Due Process Clause if the only purpose of the ordinance is to protect local businesses at the expense of transient merchants. The plaintiff has not offered any evidence to establish that proposition. Since the Court issued its prior opinion, the plaintiff has filed a second amended complaint, which reasserts the plaintiffs Equal Protection and Dormant Commerce Clause challenges and adds a token Due Process claim.

The plaintiff applied for and received a license on June 9, 2009 to operate its hotdog stand for three months, seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. By its terms, the license expired on November 3, 2009. Under the terms of the old ordinance, the plaintiff also was required to obtain permission to operate its hotdog cart in the desired locations, which was within a “restricted area” in the downtown district. That permission was never granted. It is undisputed that the plaintiff never applied for a license to operate its cart in 2010, has not applied for a license in 2012, and never completed the process of applying for a license in 2011. The plaintiff also admits she never applied for a variance.

Monroe City Ordinance 11-001, signed into law in 2011 and presently in effect, amended Ordinance 374-2 by striking the reference in the definition section to a “restricted area.” It amended section 374-11 by eliminating all references to a restricted area and deleting the requirement of obtaining special permission to operate anywhere in the City, and maintained in that section a requirement that the transient merchant have liability insurance. The new ordinance also amended section 374-13 by deleting as prohibited conduct engaging in business as a transient merchant in the restricted area without special permission.

The amended ordinance still prohibits “[r]emain[ing], while engaged in the business of a hawker and peddler, in any one place in the City for a period of time longer than 10 minutes.” City of Monroe Ordinance § 374-13(A)(4) (as amended by Monroe City Ordinance 11-001). There is no provision of the ordinance that would prohibit an applicant from seeking a variance from the ten minute provision, and City states that it remains open to negotiation on that point.

The plaintiff explains that it did not pursue the application process to completion after 2009 because of representations by City officials that they would block the application and require the plaintiff to move its business operations to another location every ten minutes. However, the plaintiff attached to its complaint a letter in response to the 2011 application which belies those allegations. The City stated in its letter: “The application will be granted subject to the following,” and then listed a number of formal requirements that the plaintiff had failed to meet in order to complete the application. Second Amend. Compl., Ex. G, Letter dated July 29, 2011. The City stated that the application (1) did not include a copy of a valid current Michigan Sales Tax License, as required by the city code; (2) did not state whether the plaintiff planned to operate as a “hawker or peddler” or as a “transient merchant”; (3) did not include the required fees; (4) indicated that the plaintiff [430]*430would operate from a “lot,” but did not specify the location of the lot; (5) did not include proof of a $500 bond as required under the city code; (6) and did not include an executed “release and hold harmless agreement.” Id. at 1-2.

The City also pointed out that (1) the plaintiff would have to demonstrate for each specific location that pedestrian traffic would not be blocked and that the setup of the cart would not compromise access to public spaces as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act; and (2) “hawkers and peddlers” are subject to the 10-minute limitation under ordinance § 374-13(A)(4), but “[a] transient merchant ... may operate on private property which is not covered by the 10 minute limit.”

The ordinance contains some definitions that correspond to the references in the City’s letter. A hawker and peddler is defined as

[a]ny person who goes about to any private residence or residences, or upon the streets, sidewalks or public alleys, or on any other public property in the City, carrying, selling, offering for sale or taking orders for the sale of edible items, goods, wares, merchandise or any kind of property or thing. ' ' •

City of Monroe Ordinance § 374-2 (as amended by Monroe City Ordinance 11-001) A transient merchant is

[a]ny person engaged temporarily in the retail sale or delivery of edible items, goods, wares, merchandise or any kind of property or thing from any lot, premises, building, room or structure.

Ibid

The City attached to its letter a catalog of detailed comments from the City Planning Department, which explained concerns about space and access at eight specific locations proposed in the plaintiffs application.

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Bluebook (online)
913 F. Supp. 2d 426, 2012 WL 6632211, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dog-pound-llc-v-city-of-monroe-mied-2012.