Luvert v. Chicago Housing Authority

142 F. Supp. 3d 701, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 151305, 2015 WL 6856980
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 6, 2015
DocketCase No. 15 C 6523
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 142 F. Supp. 3d 701 (Luvert v. Chicago Housing Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luvert v. Chicago Housing Authority, 142 F. Supp. 3d 701, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 151305, 2015 WL 6856980 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Milton I. Shadur, Senior United States District Judge

Dashay Luvert (“Luvert”) sued the Chicago Housing Authority (“CHA”) in the Circuit Court of Cook County based on CHA’s refusal to have extended the term of her housing voucher.1 Having removed the case to this federal District Court, CHA now brings a Fed. R. Civ. P. (“Rule”) 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the Complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. For the reasons that follow, that motion is granted as to all counts save Counts IV and.V, which are remanded to the state Circuit Court.

Motion To Dismiss Standards

Under Rule 12(b)(6) a party may move for dismissal for the “failure to state a claim upon' which relief can be granted.” Familiar Rule 12(b)(6) principles require the district court to accept as true all of Luvert’s well-pleaded factual' allegations and view them in the light most favorable to her as the non-moving party (Lavalais v. Vill. of Melrose Park, 734 F.3d 629, 632 (7th Cir.2013)). But “legal conclusions or conclusory allegations that merely recite a claim’s elements” are not entitled to any presumption of truth (Munson v. Gaetz, 673 F.3d 630, 632 (7th Cir.2012)).

In the past decade the Supreme Court made an important change in the evaluation of Rule 12(b)(6) motions via what this Court regularly refers to as the “Twombly-Iqbal, canon,” a usage drawn from Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), as more finely, tuned in Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (per curiam), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009)). That canon has introduced the concept of “plausibility” into the analysis, and in that respect our Court of Appeals has “interpreted Twom-bly and Iqbal to require the plaintiff to provid[e] some specific facts to support the legal claims asserted in the complaint” (McCauley v. City of Chicago, 671 F.3d 611, 616 (7th Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks omitted)). As McCauley went on to reconfirm, claimants “must give enough details about the subject-matter of the case to present a story that holds together” (id.).

Because the focus of Rule 12(b)(6) motions is on the pleadings, they “can be based only on the complaint itself, documents attached to the complaint, documents that are critical to the complaint and referred to in it, and information that is subject to proper judicial notice” (Geinosky v. City of Chicago, 675 F.3d 743, 745 n. 1 (7th Cir.2012)). But a nonmovant has more flexibility, for he “may elaborate on his factual allegations so long as the new elaborations are consistent with the pleadings” (id.),

In granting a .dismissal courts should usually give a claimant at least one opportunity to amend (Runnion ex rel. Runnion v. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Nw. Ind., 786 F.3d 510, 519 (7th Cir.2015)). And consistently with the princi-[706]*706pies of Rule 15(a)(2) courts generally grant leave to amend freely. But where “it is certain ... that any amendment would be futile or otherwise unwarranted,” the court can deny leave to amend (id: at 519-20, emphasis in original). And as the ensuing lengthy in depth analysis will reveal, the flaws in Luvert’s attempt to state any federal claim for relief cannot be cured.

Supplemental state law claims may be dismissed without prejudice when all federal claims are dispatched before trial (Pugel v. Bd. of Trs. of the Univ. of Ill., 378 F.3d 659, 669 (7th Cir.2004)). Indeed, “when the district court dismisses all federal claims before trial, the usual and preferred course is to remand the state claims to the state court unless there are countervailing considerations” (Williams v. Seniff, 342 F.3d 774, 794 (7th Cir.2003) (citation omitted)). Such countervailing considerations include three limited exceptions identified in Williams Elecs. Games, Inc. v. Garrity, 479 F.3d 904, 906-07 (7th Cir.2007): (1) “where the statute of limitations would bar the refiling of the supplemental claims in state court,” (2) “where substantial federal judicial resources have already been expended on the resolution of the supplemental claims” and (3) “where it is obvious how the claims should be decided.”

Background

At the core of Luvert’s five-count Complaint is her inability to participate in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (“Voucher Program”), a low-income housing assistance program administered by CHA on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1437f, a part of the United States Housing Act of 1937 as amended (“the Act”) — for a description of the Voucher Program, seé 24 C.F.R. § 982.2 and the Chicago Housing Authority. Administrative Plan for the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Nov. 20, 2012) at 1-1.2 After selecting a family to participate in the Voucher Program (the term “family” also encompasses single individuals in HUD’s definition — see 24 C.F.R. § 5.403), a Public Housing Authority (“PHA”) such as CHA issues a voucher with which the family can shop for housing (Reg.302(a)). Once the family negotiates a lease with a prospective landlord, the PHA inspects the unit and, if the unit meets certain criteria, enters into a Housing Assistance Payment (“HAP”) contract with the landlord to pay whatever portion of the rent it will subsidize (Regs.302(b) and 305).

Of particular relevance to this case, a family has a limited time to submit a unit for approval (Reg.302(c)). That term may be extended (Reg.303(b)), although as will become apparent the parties dispute sharply what HUD regulations say about that extension. In addition, once a family submits a request for approval the voucher’s term may be tolled, as it were — what [707]*707the regulations call a “suspension” — while the PHA inspects -the unit (Reg.303(e)).3

According to the allegations in'the Complaint, which this Court must accept as true for purposes of deciding the motion, Luvert was deemed eligible and approved for participation in the Voucher Program after some nine years on CHA’s waiting list, receiving her voucher bn July 18, 2014 (Complaint ¶¶ 1, 47 — 48). She visited more than ten apartments over the next three months before settling on one in October 2014 (Complaint ¶¶ 49-50). That - apartment failed CHA’s inspection, however* and Luvert did not submit another unit for approval until the end of December 2014 (Complaint ¶¶ 50-51).

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Bluebook (online)
142 F. Supp. 3d 701, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 151305, 2015 WL 6856980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luvert-v-chicago-housing-authority-ilnd-2015.