Parson v. Phelps

193 F. Supp. 3d 353, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79698, 2016 WL 3452745
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedJune 20, 2016
DocketCiv. No. 15-325-SLR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 193 F. Supp. 3d 353 (Parson v. Phelps) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parson v. Phelps, 193 F. Supp. 3d 353, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79698, 2016 WL 3452745 (D. Del. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

Sue L. Robinson, United States District Judge

At Wilmington this 20th day of June, 2016, having reviewed defendants’ motion to dismiss (D.I. 16), and the papers submitted in connection therewith, the court issues its decision based on the following analysis:

1.Background. Plaintiffs, inmates at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (“VCC”), Smyrna, Delaware, filed this lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”) against defendants.1 They proceed pro se and have paid the filing fee. This case was severed from Civ. No. 12-1120-SLR on April 22, 2015, and proceeds on counts 1 through 14 and 18 of the original complaint (D.I. 3), plaintiffs having opted to stand on its allegations. (D.I. 6)

2. Plaintiffs, who are Muslim, were among several inmates named in Civ. No. 12-1120-SLR, a case that raised religious discrimination claims based upon Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Defendants moved to sever the claims based upon the religion of plaintiffs; the court granted the motions, and this new civil action was opened. (See D.I. 1,2) As noted, plaintiffs opted to stand on the allegations in the original complaint. On November 26, 2013, defendants filed an answer to the complaint in Civ. No. 12-1120-SLR at D.I. 80. Defendants were ordered to advise the court if they stand on that answer in this severed case. (D.I. 14) Defendants replied that they do not and submitted the instant motion to dismiss in its place. (D.I. 16 at 1, n.l)

3. Plaintiffs generally allege in their complaint that the defendants violated the First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, and RLUIPA by refusing to provide halal diets, not providing Muslim inmates with the same religious privileges as Protestant inmates, restricting congregational prayer, and denying plaintiffs access to items related to their religious beliefs.2 (D.I. 3) Plaintiffs allege that defendants Phelps, Knight, Senato, and Simmons “placed a substantial and unnecessary burden on the practice of the plaintiffs’] religion when they denied plaintiffs[’] request for a religious diet” in violation of both the [357]*357RLUIPA and the Equal Protection Act, (Id. at 5 ¶ 1) Plaintiffs further allege defendants Phelps, Knight,. Senato, Simmons, and Pennell -violated plaintiffs’ equal protection rights to partake in requisite holy days according to their Muslim faith, while allowing Protestant inmates to participate in theirs by “aeknowledg[ing] but refus[ing] to allow plaintiffs within the Islamic and Catholic communities to worship, assemble, and celebrate their religious holy day—feasts, respectively.” (Id. at 7) Plaintiffs also allege defendants “continuously belie and misunderstand the plaintiffs[’] religious holy day, and thus label them as ‘Banquets.’ ” (Id.)

4. Standard. A motion filed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) tests the sufficiency of a complaint’s factual allegations. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007); Kost v. Kozakiewicz, 1 F.3d 176, 183 (3d Cir.1993). A complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, in order to give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 545, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (internal quotation marks omitted) (interpreting Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)). Consistent with the Supreme Court’s rulings in Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009), the Third Circuit requires a two-part analysis when reviewing a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Edwards v. A.H. Cornell & Son, Inc., 610 F.3d 217, 219 (3d Cir.2010); Fowler v. UPMC Shadyside, 578 F.3d 203, 210 (3d Cir.2009). First, a court should separate the factual and legal elements of a claim, accepting the facts and disregarding the legal conclusions. Fowler, 578 F.3d at 210-11. Second, a court should determine whether the remaining well-pled facts sufficiently show that the plaintiff “has a ‘plausible claim for relief.’ ” Id. at 211 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937). As part of the analysis, a court must accept all well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint as true, and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007); Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 406, 122 S.Ct. 2179, 153 L.Ed.2d 413 (2002); Phillips v. Cnty. of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 231 (3d Cir.2008). In this regard, a court may consider the pleadings, public record, orders, exhibits attached to the complaint, and documents incorporated into the complaint by reference. Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd., 551 U.S. 308, 322, 127 S.Ct. 2499, 168 L.Ed.2d 179 (2007); Oshiver v. Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman, 38 F.3d 1380, 1384-85 n. 2 (3d Cir.1994).

5. The court’s determination is not whether the non-moving party “will ultimately prevail” but whether that party is “entitled to offer evidence to support the claims.” United States ex rel. Wilkins v. United Health Grp., Inc., 659 F.3d 295, 302 (3d Cir.2011). This “does not impose a probability requirement at the pleading stage,” but instead “simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence of [the necessary element].” Phillips, 515 F.3d at 234 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955). The court’s analysis is a context-specific task requiring the court “to draw on its judicial experience and common sense.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 663-64, 129 S.Ct. 1937.

6. Discussion. Defendants allege that plaintiffs have not clearly identified how each named defendant personally violated either the Constitution or RLUIPA; i.e., plaintiffs’ allegations ‘lump” together the activities of senior management, the middle management, the food service provider, and the chaplain staff. (D.I. 16) According to defendants, while each count includes the names of various defendants, [358]*358the complaint as'a whole fails to state with specificity how each defendant personally violated an established statutory or constitutional right. , ,

7.

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Bluebook (online)
193 F. Supp. 3d 353, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79698, 2016 WL 3452745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parson-v-phelps-ded-2016.