Kloth-Zanard v. Weebly, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 26, 2025
Docket3:24-cv-00965
StatusUnknown

This text of Kloth-Zanard v. Weebly, Inc. (Kloth-Zanard v. Weebly, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kloth-Zanard v. Weebly, Inc., (D. Conn. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT JOAN KLOTH-ZANARD, ) 3:24-CV-965 (SVN) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) BLOCK, INC., as the parent company of ) WEEBLY.COM, ) September 26, 2025 Defendant. ) RULING ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS Sarala V. Nagala, United States District Judge. Pro se Plaintiff Joan Kloth-Zanard, a consultant for several organizations, alleges that Defendant Block, Inc., as the parent company of Weebly.com, violated her rights when it blocked her out of her clients’ websites on Defendant’s system, in apparent retaliation for one of her clients disputing a bill it received from Defendant. Plaintiff asserts five claims: (1) tortious interference; (2) violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (3) violation of the Uniform Commercial Code; (4) breach of contract and failure to mitigate; and (5) unjust enrichment. Defendant seeks to dismiss Plaintiff’s action, contending that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over certain of Plaintiff’s claims because she lacks standing to bring them, and that, in any event, all of Plaintiff’s claims fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. See Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 52-1; Def.’s Reply, ECF No. 74. Plaintiff opposes the motion. See Pl.’s Opp’n, ECF No. 73. For the reasons described below, the Court finds that Plaintiff fails to state any cognizable claims for relief and, in some instances, lacks standing to do so. Thus, Defendant’s motion to dismiss is GRANTED as to all claims. Plaintiff is permitted leave to file an amended complaint only with respect to her tortious interference with contract and unjust enrichment claims; all other claims are dismissed without leave to amend.1 I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND The Court accepts the following allegations in Plaintiff’s second amended complaint as true for purposes of deciding Defendant’s motion to dismiss. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662,

678 (2009). Plaintiff worked as a consultant to seven organizations: PAS Intervention (“PASI”); Advocate for Families; KZ Snowshed; Snowshed CC, Enough Court Corruption; Turning Points for Families; and Snowshed Designs. See Second Am. Compl., ECF No. 43 at 2; at 10 ¶ 24; at 11 ¶ 25. PASI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, of which Plaintiff is the founder. Id. at 2; at 9 ¶ 11.2 Although Plaintiff’s allegations are somewhat unclear, the Court believes that in her role as a consultant, Plaintiff provided resources and information for her clients’ websites, and helped build and maintain those websites. See ECF No. 43 at 1 (noting that Plaintiff maintained and built her clients’ websites); at 3 ¶ 4 (noting that two of Plaintiff’s “projects had over 100 pages each”),

1 Plaintiff filed a motion for leave to file a sur-reply to Defendant’s reply to her opposition to this motion to dismiss, which also included a renewed request for appointment of counsel. See Mot., ECF No. 77. Sur-reply briefs may be allowed upon a showing of good cause. D. Conn. L. Civ. R. 7(d). As Plaintiff has not made a showing of good cause and the content of the proposed sur-reply does not alter the outcome of this ruling, Plaintiff’s motion is denied. Additionally, the Court notes that Defendant failed to comply with Local Rule 12(a)’s requirement to provide Plaintiff with the Notice to Self-Represented Litigant Regarding a Motion to Dismiss. The Notice required by the Local Rules is intended to put pro se litigants on notice of the fact that a motion to dismiss may be granted if the pro se litigant does not respond to the motion, and of the option to seek an extension of time to file a response. See D. Conn. L. Civ. R. 12(a). District courts have discretion to excuse non-compliance with their Local Rules, in the interests of justice. Wight v. BankAmerica Corp., 219 F.3d 79, 85 (2d Cir. 2000). Here, Plaintiff sought (and received) a lengthy extension of time in which to respond to the motion, see Order, ECF No. 59, and filed not only a primary opposition, but also a motion to file a sur-reply brief, see ECF No. 73, ECF No. 77. It is thus clear she was aware of her obligation to respond to the motion and her option to seek additional time to do so. Given that the motion to dismiss has been pending for a significant period of time and Plaintiff was undisputably aware of her obligation to respond, the Court finds that it is in the interests of justice to excuse Defendant’s non-compliance with Local Rule 12(a) and to proceed with deciding the motion on the papers the parties have submitted to date. 2 The second amended complaint repeats paragraph numbering. To avoid confusion, where the Court refers to a paragraph number, it also refers to the associated page number. ¶ 6 (noting that “Plaintiff spent at least 90% of her day building and creating and maintaining the websites”). Plaintiff had an online account with Weebly.com, the parent company of which is Defendant Block, Inc. Id. at 1. The Weebly web-based product provides customers with tools to build a professional website. Annos Decl., Def.’s Ex. A, ECF No. 52-2 ¶ 5.3 Through Weebly,

Plaintiff built and maintained her clients’ websites. ECF No. 43 at 1. In December of 2022, PASI disputed alleged overcharges on its American Express credit card in relation to a bill from Defendant that failed to account for PASI’s nonprofit status discount. Id. at 7 ¶ 1. Following that dispute, Defendant shut down Plaintiff’s account, which resulted in shutting down PASI’s website and the websites for six other organizations for which Plaintiff consulted, despite that the other organizations were up-to-date on their bills or had free sites. Id. at 8 ¶¶ 4, 10; at 9 ¶ 15; at 10 ¶ 21. Plaintiff contacted Defendant on behalf of PASI, seeking to understand and remedy the billing issue. See id. at 9 ¶¶ 11–13. As part of her interactions with Defendant, she allegedly “repeatedly request[ed] ADA Reasonable accommodations and to speak

to Weebly’s ADA coordinator,” but such requests were denied. Id. at 4 ¶ 16; at 14 ¶ 50. Although it is somewhat unclear how long the websites were shut down, the Court understands that as a result of the shutdown, Plaintiff lost the content she developed for her clients and posted on their websites, along with organizational data and sales and merchandise data, and the websites were hacked because they lost antivirus protection that was provided by Defendant. See id. at 6 ¶ 16; at 11 ¶¶ 26, 28–31. Plaintiff alleges that she has spent significant time working to rebuild the websites in the wake of these problems, including hiring a “new nonprofit platform” at a cost of $6,000, learning how to use that platform, and spending thousands of hours re-

3 For purposes of assessing a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the Court may examine materials beyond the complaint. Makarova v. United States, 201 F.3d 110, 113 (2d Cir. 2000). developing the resources that were lost. See id. at 3–4 ¶¶ 10–15; at 13 ¶ 41–42; at 14 ¶¶ 46–48. Plaintiff also alleges that she lost her income, as her clients “had to shut down their businesses” because their websites were shut down, and that her unspecified disabilities were exacerbated by Defendant’s ADA violations. Id. at 4 ¶ 15; at 13 ¶ 39; at 14 ¶ 49. Plaintiff seeks $6,000,000 in damages to remedy these harms.4 Id. at 17 ¶¶ 1–6.

II. LEGAL STANDARD A. Rule 12(b)(1) Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), a defendant may move to dismiss a case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

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Bluebook (online)
Kloth-Zanard v. Weebly, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kloth-zanard-v-weebly-inc-ctd-2025.