Grider v. City & County of Denver

958 F. Supp. 2d 1262, 2013 WL 3851046, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104484
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJuly 25, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 10-cv-00722-MSK-MJW
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 958 F. Supp. 2d 1262 (Grider v. City & County of Denver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grider v. City & County of Denver, 958 F. Supp. 2d 1262, 2013 WL 3851046, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104484 (D. Colo. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION

MARCIA S. KRIEGER, Chief Judge.

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on two motions to dismiss: (1) Defendant City and County of Denver’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction (# 137), and (2) Defendant City of Aurora’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff Bel[1265]*1265cher’s and Plaintiff Piltz’s Claims for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction (# 140). The Plaintiffs filed a combined Response (# 161), and the Defendants each filed a Reply (## 163,164).

I. Background

As alleged in the Amended Complaint (# 85) and detailed in previous orders, both Denver and Aurora ban the possession of pit bull dogs.1 The Plaintiffs, Allen Grider, Glenn Belcher, and Valerie Piltz, each claim to be a disabled individual protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (A DA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and to use a pit bull as a service animal to assist with the tasks of daily living.

As a result of ruling on earlier motions, see Order at Dkt. # 100, this action has only one legal claim — for a failure to accommodate in violation of the ADA and 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(b)(7), in that the Defendants refused to modify their ordinances as necessary to accommodate the Plaintiffs’ disabilities. In reality, however, there are six claims — each Plaintiff asserts a claim against each Defendant. The Plaintiffs seek both damages and injunctive relief in the form of modification of the Defendants’ ordinances.

The Defendants now challenge the Plaintiffs’ standing to assert their claims. The City of Denver argues that none of the named Plaintiffs have standing to seek either retrospective or prospective relief against it. The City of Aurora makes the same argument with regard to Plaintiffs Belcher and Piltz.2 The Defendants contend that because the Plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged their standing, their claims must be dismissed under Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

II. Standard of Review

When evaluating a plaintiffs standing at the pleading stage of the litigation, the Court “must accept as true all material allegations of the complaint, and must construe the complaint in favor of the complaining party.” Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). At the same time, the Court may allow the plaintiff to supply affidavits that further particularize allegations of fact deemed supportive of the plaintiffs standing. Id. The Court construes statements made in such affidavits in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Palma, 707 F.3d 1143, 1152 (10th Cir.2013). At the pleading stage, “general factual allegations of injury resulting from the defendant’s conduct may suffice,” for on a motion to dismiss, the Court presumes that “general allegations embrace those specific facts that are necessary to support the claim.” Id. (quoting Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)). If, however, the plaintiffs standing does not adequately appear from the materials of record, that being the complaint and additional affidavits submitted by the plaintiff, the claim must be dismissed.3 Warth, 422 U.S. at 502, 95 S.Ct. 2197.

Where, as here, the original complaint has been superseded by an amended corn-[1266]*1266plaint, the court examines the amended complaint in assessing the allegations supporting standing. Mink v. Suthers, 482 F.3d 1244, 1254 (10th Cir.2007). However, standing is determined at the time the action was brought, and courts generally look to when the complaint was first filed, not to subsequent events, to determine if a plaintiff has standing. See Palma, 707 F.3d at 1153.

III. Analysis

The jurisdiction of federal courts is limited to actual cases or controversies. U.S. Const. art. III, § 2 cl.1. To establish a case or controversy, a plaintiff bears the burden of demonstrating three elements: (1) it has suffered an “injury in fact” that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. Bronson v. Swensen, 500 F.3d 1099, 1106 (10th Cir.2007) (citing Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs., Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-81, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000)). Each plaintiff must have standing to seek each form of relief in each claim. Id.

The “injury in fact” requirement is satisfied differently depending on whether the plaintiff seeks prospective or retrospective relief. See Tandy v. City of Wichita, 380 F.3d 1277, 1283 (10th Cir. 2004) (citing City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 101-02, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983)). To seek prospective relief, the plaintiff must suffer a continuing injury or be under a real and immediate threat of being injured in the future. The threatened injury must be “certainly impending” and not merely speculative. Laidlaw, 528 U.S. at 190, 120 S.Ct. 693. A claimed injury that depends on speculation or conjecture is beyond the bounds of a federal court’s jurisdiction. A plaintiff seeking retrospective relief, on the other hand, satisfies the “injury in fact” requirement if she suffered a past injury that is concrete and particularized. Tandy, 380 F.3d at 1284.

Here, the Plaintiffs’ failure to accommodate claims are brought under Title II of the ADA, which provides that no disabled person “shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity.” 42 U.S.C. § 12132. Thus, to the extent the Plaintiffs allege an injury in fact, that injury must be fairly traceable to the Defendants’ challenged conduct of denying the benefits of or access to local government services. However, the threshold standing inquiry does not depend on the merits of the Plaintiffs’ contention that the challenged conduct is illegal. Whitmore v. Arkansas, 495 - U.S. 149, 155, 110 S.Ct. 1717, 109 L.Ed.2d 135 (1990).

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Bluebook (online)
958 F. Supp. 2d 1262, 2013 WL 3851046, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grider-v-city-county-of-denver-cod-2013.