Marquardt v. City of Blaine

136 F. Supp. 3d 1049, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134133, 2015 WL 5737112
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 30, 2015
DocketCivil No. 14-2958 (JRT/HB)
StatusPublished

This text of 136 F. Supp. 3d 1049 (Marquardt v. City of Blaine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marquardt v. City of Blaine, 136 F. Supp. 3d 1049, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134133, 2015 WL 5737112 (mnd 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ON MOTIONS TO DISMISS

JOHN R. TUNHEIM, Chief Judge, United States District Court

Plaintiff Michelle Marquardt (“Mar-quardt”) brings this action against various cities and counties in Minnesota, along with several other governmental entities and officials (“defendants”), alleging that law enforcement officers illegally accessed her driver’s license information, in violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (“DPPA”). The various defendants have filed ten motions to- dismiss, arguing that most of Marquardt’s claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations and that Marquardt has failed to allege sufficiently violations of the DPPA. The defendants also argue that any remaining claims should be severed. Because the statute of limitations bars most - of Marquardt’s claims, the Court will grant, in part or in full, each of the ten motions to dismiss. The Court will dismiss some of the remaining claims because they do not allege a suspicious pattern of accesses by the defendant entities. However, because Mar-quardt has made plausible .allegations against the City of Minneapolis,, the Court will deny in part that city’s motion to dismiss.1

BACKGROUND

On July 21, 2014, Marquardt filed a complaint asserting one DPPA count against numerous city, county, and other defendants. (Compl. ¶¶ 412-34, July 21, 2014, Docket No. 1.) Specifically, Mar-quardt named the following' defendants:

• ' Auto Save, Inc.2;
• Law firm of Johnson & Turner3;
• Counties of Blue Earth, Dakota, Hennepin, Norman, Ramsey, and [1052]*1052Sherburne4;
• Cities of Blaine, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Burnsville, Cannon Falls, Centerville5, Circle Pines, Cottage Grove, Detroit Lakes, Dundas, Ea-gan, Farmington, Grand Rapids, Hastings, Lexington, Mankato, Men-dota Heights, Minneapolis, Minne-tonka, New Hope, New Ulm, Rose-mount, Roseville, St. Paul Park, St. Paul, and West St. Paul6;
• The Metropolitan (“Met”) Council;
• Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board;
• Entity/municipality Does (1-50);
• Defendant John and Jane Does (1-500);
• Michael Campion, former Minnesota Department of Public Safety (“DPS") Commissioner; and Mona Dohman, current Minnesota DPS Commissioner; and
• DPS Does (1-30).'

(CompLIffl 10-57.)

Marquardt is a nurse in Hastings, Minnesota who recently moved from Minnesota to' Prescott, Wisconsin. (Id. ¶58.) She lived 'in Hastings, Minnesota from 1988 to 2011, and later lived in Hugo, Minnesota and Woodbury, Minnesota. (Id. ¶¶ 60-62.) Her brother was a police officer in Minneapolis for two years around 2000, her sister worked for the Chisago County Sheriffs Department and is- currently a federal agent working for the United States Department of Homeland Security, and Marquardt herself was married to a Minnesota state patrol officer— working in the St. Paul area — from 1988 through their divorce in 2008. (Id. ¶¶ 65-68.) Although her husband’s work was based in the St. Paul area, he also worked at the Mall of America and out of the Cottage Grove and Mendota Heights police departments. (Id. ¶ 68.) Marquardt’s ex-husband, and Marquardt herself, knew law enforcement personnel from many of the other communities' listed in her' complaint, such as Eagan, Mendota Heights, Rosemount, Hastings, and Dakota County. (Id. ¶¶ 69-73.) In addition, Marquardt dated and was engaged to a Minneapolis police officer through 2013. (Id. ¶ 74.) That.police officer had friends inlaw enforcement in Ramsey County, Hennepin [1053]*1053County, Burnsville, and Minneapolis. (Id.) He at one point filed assault charges against her in Washington County, but searches related to that incident are not charged in this complaint. (Id. ¶ 75.)

In 2013, Marquardt requested an audit from the DPS of the instances in which law enforcement officers had searched for her name in the state’s Driver and Vehicle Services Division “DVS” database (“DVS Database”). (Id. ¶¶ 342-44.) Based on that audit, which she receivéd on July 30, 2013, she alleges that her name was searched, or “obtained” under the DPPA, nearly 270 times by employees of the named defendants since 2003. ' (Id. ¶¶-344-46). She attaches as Exhibit A to her complaint the list of those searches, separated by the government unit that performed each search. (Id. Ex. A.) Because of the sheer number of searches, the Court will not replicate the list in this Order.

Marquardt filed her complaint on July 21, 2014, alleging one DPPA count against each of the defendants listed above, based on the 270 “obtainments” of her driver’s license information. (Compl.) The DPPA, 18 U.S.C. § 2721 et seq., provides a private right of action to a person whose driver’s license information is misused:

A person who knowingly obtains, discloses or uses personal information, from a motor vehicle record, for a purpose not permitted under this chapter shall be liable to the individual to whom the information pertains, who may bring a civil action in a United States district court.

18 U.S.C. § 2724(a).

Based on (1) her ties to law enforcement through family and romantic relationships; (2) the assertion that she was never investigated or prosecuted in any of the defendant communities; (3) the assertion that she had never committed crimes or been sued in (or even been to many of) the defendant communities; (4) the assertion that she had never been involved in any civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitral proceeding in any of the defendant communities or in relation to any organizational or individual defendants; and (5) the assertion that many searches occurred late at night or on the same day by multiple unrelated entities, and otherwise occurred in suspicious, patterns; Marquardt claims that all of the defendants’ searches listed in Exhibit A were not for a permissible purpose under the DPPA.7 (Id. ¶¶ 90-262, 349-51.) Marquardt also cites the State of Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor’s testimony that at leást half of Minnesota law enforcement officers are misusing the DVS Database. (Id. ¶399.) As for the DPS Commissioners and unidentified- DPS defendants, Marquardt alleges a violation of the DPPA because the DPS created a loosely controlled system that allows for law enforcement personnel to look up driver’s license information at will, for any reason, and without any checks on the reason underlying a lookup. (Id. ¶¶263-341.) '

In October and November of 2014, various defendants filed ten motions to dismiss. The Court will address the specifics of the various motions below. In general, the defendants argue that most of Mar-quardt’s claims are time-barred under the applicable statute of limitations.

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Bluebook (online)
136 F. Supp. 3d 1049, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134133, 2015 WL 5737112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marquardt-v-city-of-blaine-mnd-2015.