Schor v. Daley

563 F. Supp. 2d 893, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50602, 2008 WL 2596456
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 30, 2008
Docket07 C 7119
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 563 F. Supp. 2d 893 (Schor v. Daley) 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
Schor v. Daley, 563 F. Supp. 2d 893, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50602, 2008 WL 2596456 (N.D. Ill. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

RUBEN CASTILLO, District Judge.

Gayle Schor (“Schor”), Kristine Mulcahy (“Mulcahy”), and Angela Shue (“Shue”), on behalf of themselves and a purported class of motor vehicle operators within the City of Chicago (the “City”) who were ticketed for using a wireless telephone without a *898 “hands-free” device (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), filed this suit against Mayor Richard Daley (“Mayor Daley”), Officer Ramon Solidum (“Solidum”), Unknown Officers (“Officers”), and the City of Chicago (the “City”) (collectively, “Defendants”). Plaintiffs were ticketed pursuant to Chicago municipal ordinance 9-40-260 (“Ordinance”), which Plaintiffs claim violates state and federal law. (R. 15, Am.Compl.)

RELEVANT FACTS

The Chicago City Council passed the Ordinance on May 11, 2005, and it took effect on July 8, 2005. (R. 15, Am. CompLIHI 9-10.) The Ordinance prohibits the use of a mobile telephone without the use of a “hands free” device while operating a motor vehicle. (Id. ¶ 12.)

As of September 2007, over 25,000 citations were issued for violations of the Ordinance, resulting in almost $2 million of City revenue. (Id. ¶ 27.) Officer Solidum issued over 750 citations, representing more than three percent of the total citations issued. (Id. ¶ 28.)

Between March 2006 and November 2007, Schor, Mulcahy, and Shue were independently operating motor vehicles in the City while using mobile telephones without “hands free” devices, when they were stopped and ticketed for violations of the Ordinance. (Id. ¶¶ 44-46, 50-52, 56-58.) Upon appearing in Court, Schor’s and Shue’s traffic tickets were dismissed. (Id. ¶¶ 48, 60.) Mulcahy paid the $75 fine attributable to the traffic citation. (Id. ¶ 54.)

In the Amended Complaint (“Complaint”), Plaintiffs allege: (1) a Section 1983 claim for false arrest; (2) false arrest under Illinois law; (3) malicious prosecution under Illinois law; (4) a Section 1983 claim against Mayer Daley for allowing the City to maintain a widespread policy of permitting police officers to “falsely arrest” citizens under the Ordinance; (5) a “Monell ” claim; (6) a claim for compensation from the City for any judgment obtained against the Defendant Officers and/or Mayor Daley; (7) a claim against the City based on respondeat superior, (8) a Section 1983 claim for violation of the Equal Protection clause; and (9) a claim for declaratory and injunctive relief.

Currently before the Court is Defendants’ joint motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (R. 17, Mot. To Dismiss.) For the following reasons, the motion is granted.

LEGAL STANDARD

In a ruling on a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court accepts all well-pleaded facts in the complaint as true, and draws all reasonable inferences from those facts in the plaintiffs favor. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6); Tamayo v. Blagojevich, 526 F.3d 1074 (7th Cir.2008). To state a claim, the complaint need only contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). To satisfy this standard, the allegations in the complaint must (1) describe the claim in sufficient detail to give the defendant “fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests;” and (2) “plausibly suggest that the plaintiff has a right to relief, raising that possibility above a ‘speculative level;’ ” E.E.O.C. v. Concentra Health Servs., Inc., 496 F.3d 773, 776 (7th Cir.2007) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

ANALYSIS

I. False Arrest

In Counts I and II of the Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that they were falsely arrested pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and *899 Illinois state law because the Defendant police officers ticketed them without probable cause to believe that they had violated any law. (R. 15, Am.Compl.1ffl 66, 69.) Defendants argue that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim for false arrest because: (1) Plaintiffs cannot show that they were, in fact, arrested; and (2) Plaintiffs cannot show that the police officers lacked probable cause to stop them and issue traffic citations. (R. 18, Mem. in Supp. of Mot. to Dismiss at 3-4.)

A. False Arrest under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

In general, a routine traffic stop does not constitute an arrest. See United States v. Bums, 37 F.3d 276, 280 (7th Cir.1994). Plaintiffs do not claim that the traffic tickets doled out constituted anything more than a routine traffic stop, and accordingly, Plaintiffs’ “false arrest” claims should fail.

Reading the Complaint as a whole, however, Plaintiffs appear to be trying to state a more general claim, that the traffic stops at issue violated Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. “The law is settled that in Fourth Amendment terms a traffic stop entails a seizure of the driver even though the purpose of the stop is limited and the resulting detention quite brief.” Brendlin v. California , — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2400, 2406, 168 L.Ed.2d 132 (2007) (internal citations omitted). Nevertheless, a plaintiff cannot state a claim for violation of the Fourth Amendment where the officer had probable cause for the traffic stop. “A police officer has probable cause for a traffic stop when he has an objectively reasonable basis to believe a traffic law has been violated. Moreover, probable cause exists when the circumstances confronting an officer support the reasonable belief that a driver has committed even a minor traffic offense.” United States v. Hernandez-Rivas, 513 F.3d 753, 758-59 (7th Cir.2008) (citing United States v. Dowthard, 500 F.3d 567, 569 (7th Cir.2007)).

Here, Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim fails because the officers had probable cause to believe that Plaintiffs were violating the Ordinance: the officers observed Plaintiffs driving while using a mobile phone without a hands-free device. See United States v. Figueroa-Espana, 511 F.3d 696

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Bluebook (online)
563 F. Supp. 2d 893, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50602, 2008 WL 2596456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schor-v-daley-ilnd-2008.