Kouball v. Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedSeptember 9, 2020
Docket3:20-cv-00870
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Kouball v. Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, Inc., (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 LISA KOUBALL, on behalf of herself, Case No.: 20-cv-870-CAB-BGS and all others similarly situated, 12 ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S Plaintiff, 13 MOTION TO DISMISS v. 14 SEAWORLD PARKS & 15 ENTERTAINMENT, INC., [Doc. No. 12] 16 Defendant. 17 18 This matter is before the Court on a motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint filed by 19 Defendant SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Inc. (“SeaWorld”). [Doc. No. 12.] The Court 20 held a telephonic hearing on September 9, 2020. For the reasons set forth below, the Court 21 grants SeaWorld’s motion to dismiss. 22 I. BACKGROUND 23 Plaintiff Lisa Kouball filed this putative consumer class action complaint against 24 Defendant SeaWorld on May 8, 2020. [Doc. No. 1.] The complaint asserts claims for: (1) 25 violation of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”), Cal. Civ. Code §§ 26 1750, et seq.; (2) violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”), Cal. Bus. & 27 Prof. Code §§ 17200, et seq.; (3) violation of California’s False Advertising Law (“FAL”), 28 1 Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17500, et seq.; (4) breach of contract; (5) unjust enrichment; 2 and (6) money had and received. [Id.] 3 SeaWorld operates several amusement parks and water parks throughout the United 4 States, with locations in San Diego, Orlando, and San Antonio. [Id. at ¶ 6.1] Plaintiff 5 alleges SeaWorld offers annual passes that allow its customers to access its parks on an 6 unlimited basis. [Id.] Plaintiff purchased four annual passes for SeaWorld’s San Diego 7 location for which she is charged a total of $48.99 per month. [Id. at ¶ 10.] In March of 8 2020, SeaWorld closed all its parks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Id. at ¶ 8.] On 9 approximately April 23, 2020, Plaintiff was charged the full amount of her monthly 10 payment of $48.99 for her annual passes even though Plaintiff did not have access to 11 SeaWorld’s parks due to the closure. [Id. at ¶ 10.] Plaintiff alleges she “signed up for 12 [SeaWorld’s] annual membership passes with the belief and on the basis that he [sic] would 13 have access to SeaWorld San Diego amusement park at any time during the month in which 14 she was charged.” [Id.] Plaintiff further alleges she would not have paid for the 15 membership had she known that she would not have access to the park and that SeaWorld 16 continues charging its customers monthly fees while the parks remain closed. [Id.] 17 Plaintiff seeks to represent a Nationwide class and California subclass of all persons 18 who were charged annual membership fees for a period in which SeaWorld’s parks were 19 closed. [Id. at ¶ 12.] SeaWorld moved to dismiss the complaint on July 1, 2020. [Doc. 20 No. 12.] 21 II. LEGAL STANDARD 22 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) allows a party to move to dismiss based on 23 the court’s lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). Plaintiff has the 24 burden of establishing that the court has subject matter jurisdiction over an action. Assoc. 25 of Med. Colls. v. U.S., 217 F.3d 770, 778-79 (9th Cir. 2000). In a class action at least one 26 27 28 1 of the named plaintiffs must meet the Article III standing requirements. Bates v. United 2 Parcel Servs., Inc., 511 F.3d 974, 985 (9th Cir. 2007). Article III requires that: “(1) at least 3 one named plaintiff suffered an injury in fact, (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the 4 challenged conduct, and (3) the injury is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision.” 5 Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61 (1992) (quotation marks and citation 6 omitted). 7 Under Rule 12(b)(6), a party may bring a motion to dismiss based on the failure to 8 state a claim upon which relief may be granted. A Rule 12(b)(6) motion challenges the 9 sufficiency of a complaint as failing to allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is 10 plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). For purposes 11 of ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court “accept[s] factual allegations in the complaint 12 as true and construe[s] the pleadings in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.” 13 Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 519 F.3d 1025, 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). 14 “[D]ismissal may be based on either a lack of a cognizable legal theory or the absence of 15 sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory.” Johnson v. Riverside Healthcare 16 Sys., 534 F.3d 1116, 1121 (9th Cir. 2008) (internal quotations and citations omitted). 17 Even under the liberal pleading standard of Rule 8(a)(2), which requires only that a 18 party make “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to 19 relief,” a “pleading that offers ‘labels and conclusions’ or ‘a formulaic recitation of the 20 elements of a cause of action will not do.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) 21 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555). “[C]onclusory allegations of law and unwarranted 22 inferences are insufficient to defeat a motion to dismiss.” Adams v. Johnson, 355 F.3d 23 1179, 1183 (9th Cir. 2004); see also Starr v. Baca, 652 F.3d 1202, 1216 (9th Cir. 2011) 24 (“[A]llegations in a complaint or counterclaim may not simply recite the elements of a 25 cause of action, but must contain sufficient allegations of underlying facts to give fair 26 notice and to enable the opposing party to defend itself effectively.”). The court must be 27 able to “draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct 28 alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 663. “Determining whether a complaint states a plausible 1 claim for relief … [is] a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on 2 its judicial experience and common sense.” Id. at 679. 3 Because Plaintiff’s claims are all grounded in fraud, the complaint must satisfy the 4 heightened pleading requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) which provides: 5 “in alleging fraud or mistake, a party must state with particularity the circumstances 6 constituting fraud or mistake.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). The pleader must “identify the who, 7 what, when, where, and how of the misconduct charged, as well as what is misleading 8 about the purportedly fraudulent statement, and why it is false.” Davidson v. Kimberly- 9 Clark Corp., 873 F.3d 1103, 1110 (9th Cir. 2017) (quoting Cafasso, U.S. ex rel. v. Gen. 10 Dynamics C4 Sys., Inc., 637 F.3d 1047, 1055 (9th Cir. 2011). These heightened pleading 11 requirements apply equally to any claims based on UCL, FAL and CLRA claims which 12 ground in fraud. Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 567 F.3d 1120, 1124 (9th Cir. 2009). 13 III.

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Kouball v. Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kouball-v-seaworld-parks-entertainment-inc-casd-2020.