Ratté v. Corrigan

989 F. Supp. 2d 565, 2013 WL 6185262
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedNovember 26, 2013
DocketCase No. 11-11190
StatusPublished

This text of 989 F. Supp. 2d 565 (Ratté v. Corrigan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ratté v. Corrigan, 989 F. Supp. 2d 565, 2013 WL 6185262 (E.D. Mich. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER DISMISSING COUNT I FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

AVERN COHN, District Judge.

I.

A.

This is a civil rights case under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. The claims arise out of an incident at Comerica Park where the plaintiff father inadvertently gave his 7-year-old plaintiff son a “Mike’s Hard Lemonade,” an alcoholic beverage, at a Tiger game. A series of events then took place which resulted in the plaintiff son being placed in foster care over a weekend. The facts are explained in detail in the Court’s memorandum and order denying defendant Judge Judy Hartsfield’s motion to dismiss, granting Sualyn Holbrook’s and Cherita Turner-Royster’s motion for summary judgment, and severing count I for declaratory judgment against defendant Maura Corrigan (Doc. 86). The facts will not be repeated here.

This order addresses count I for declaratory relief against defendant Maura Corrigan in her official capacity as the Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. In count I, plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that Mich. Comp. Laws 712A.14(1) and Mich. Ct. R. 3.963(A) are unconstitutional.

B.

Count I is DISMISSED. Plaintiffs are not entitled to a declaratory judgment because they lack standing to seek injunctive relief. In addition, even if the plaintiffs could establish standing, the Court declines to exercise its discretion over the claim for declaratory relief.1

II.

The Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a), states in pertinent part:

In a case of actual controversy within its jurisdiction, ... any court of the United States, upon the filing of an appropriate pleading, may declare the rights and other legal relations of any interested party seeking such declaration, whether or not further relief is or could be sought. Any such declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree and shall be reviewable as such.

As the Sixth Circuit has explained, “Article Ill’s ‘case and controversy’ requirement is not satisfied, and a court therefore has no jurisdiction, when the claimant lacks standing, that is, ‘a sufficiently concrete and redressable interest in the dispute.’ ” Fieger v. Mich. Supreme Court, 553 F.3d 955, 961 (6th Cir.2009) (citation omitted). In order for a plaintiff to meet its burden in establishing standing, he or she must establish that:

(1) he or she has suffered an “injury in fact” that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the inju[568]*568ry is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. In the context of a declaratory judgment action, allegations of past injury alone are not sufficient to confer standing. The plaintiff must allege and/or demonstrate actual present harm or a significant possibility of future harm.

Id. at 962 (quoting Fieger v. Ferry, 471 F.3d 637, 643 (6th Cir.2006)).

Ultimately, a court has discretion whether to exercise jurisdiction in a declaratory judgment action. Scottsdale Ins. Co. v. Roumph, 211 F.3d 964, 968 (6th Cir.2000). A court considers five factors when deciding whether to exercise jurisdiction over a declaratory judgment action:

(1) whether the judgment would settle the controversy;
(2) whether the declaratory judgment action would serve a useful purpose in clarifying the legal relations at issue;
(3) whether the declaratory remedy is being used merely for the purpose of “procedural fencing” or “to provide an arena for a race for res judicata”;
(4) whether the use of a declaratory action would increase the friction between our federal and state courts and improperly encroach on state jurisdiction; and
(5) whether there is an alternative remedy that is better or more effective.

Id. (citations omitted).

III.

Plaintiffs’ request for a declaratory judgment fails as a matter of law because they do not have standing to seek' such relief. The Court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction to entertain the request for declaratory judgment.

Plaintiffs have not alleged or demonstrated actual present harm or a significant possibility of future harm. Instead, plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment based on allegations of past injury alone. The events leading to Leo’s placement in foster care for a weekend occurred in April 2008 when his father unknowingly gave him an alcoholic drink. Plaintiffs have not alleged that, in the five (5) years that have passed since Leo was placed in foster care, he has been placed in foster care again or has been the subject of proceedings in family court triggering the application of Mich. Comp. Laws 712A.14(1) and Mich. Ct. R. 3.963(A). Nor have plaintiffs established that such proceedings are likely to occur in the future. As the DHS defendants correctly state in their supplemental brief:

Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that they meet these requirement[s] because for them, this case is [a] single occurrence that will not be repeated. They have neither pleaded nor alluded to any threat that their child may again be removed from their custody, or any other indication that they may again be subjected to the purview of the challenged statute or court rule. They have provided no evidence that they have been threatened with further or repeated removals of their child, or future proceedings in family court. Without any evidence that they will again be subject to the removal of their child or child protection proceedings, Plaintiffs are left with no interest in the challenged statute and court rule greater than that of any other person in Michigan.

(Doc. 85 at 5-6, DHS Defs.’ Supplemental Br.).

Indeed, plaintiffs’ request for a declaratory judgment is a generalized grievance seeking to assert the rights of [569]*569Michigan parents and children in general, and not the rights of parties presently before the Court. In addition to the constitutional standing requirements-, a plaintiff must satisfy three prudential standing requirements: (1) a plaintiff must “ ‘assert his own legal rights and interests, and cannot rest [a] claim to relief on the legal rights or interests of third parties’ (2) “a plaintiffs claim must be more than a ‘generalized grievance’ that is pervasively shared by a large class of citizens”; and (3) “in statutory cases, the plaintiffs claim must fall within the ‘zone of interests’ regulated by the statute in question.” Coal Operators and Assocs., Inc. v. Babbitt, 291 F.3d 912, 916 (6th Cir.2002) (quoting

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Bluebook (online)
989 F. Supp. 2d 565, 2013 WL 6185262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ratte-v-corrigan-mied-2013.