Stewart v. City of Carlsbad

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedMarch 26, 2024
Docket3:23-cv-00266
StatusUnknown

This text of Stewart v. City of Carlsbad (Stewart v. City of Carlsbad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stewart v. City of Carlsbad, (S.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 LINDSEY STEWART, Case No.: 23cv266-LL-MSB

12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S 13 v. MOTION TO DISMISS

14 CITY OF CARLSBAD, et al., [ECF No. 7] 15 Defendants. 16 17 Before the Court is Defendant City of Carlsbad’s (also erroneously sued as “City of 18 Carlsbad Police Department”) (“Defendant” or “City”) Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff 19 Lindsey Stewart’s (“Plaintiff”) Complaint. ECF No. 7. Defendant’s Motion has been fully 20 briefed and the Court deems it suitable for submission without oral argument. See S.D. Cal. 21 CivLR 7.1(d)(1). For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s Motion 22 to Dismiss. 23 I. BACKGROUND 24 Plaintiff is an unhoused senior individual who parked her “22ft. travel trailer” in the 25 City of Carlsbad. ECF No. 1, Complaint (“Compl.”) at 1–2. Between January 2022 and 26 June 2022, Plaintiff alleges that she received approximately thirty parking citations from 27 the Carlsbad Police Department for parking her trailer on City streets overnight. Compl. at 28 2. The Carlsbad Municipal Code makes it unlawful for any person to park any “oversized 1 vehicle” on any City street or parking lot between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. 2 See Carlsbad Mun. Code § 10.40.180. The fine for a violation of the oversized vehicle 3 parking ordinance is $50.00 per occurrence. Compl. at 9. Further, Plaintiff alleges that she 4 filed formal complaints and exchanged email correspondence with the City of Carlsbad 5 challenging the oversized vehicle parking ordinance and its enforcement. Compl. at 5–9. 6 On February 10, 2023, Plaintiff commenced this action against Defendant 7 challenging the City ordinance. ECF No. 1. In the Complaint, Plaintiff asserts multiple 8 causes of action for: (1) failure to investigate citizen complaints and abdicate its 9 responsibility to train, supervise, discipline, and control its police officers; (2) Excessive 10 Fines Clause; (3) violation of the Eighth Amendment; (4) cruel and unusual punishment; 11 (5) discrimination in “criminalizing one’s homeless status”; (6) discrimination on the basis 12 of age; and (7) fraud “receiving grant money for homeless unit.” Id. 13 On April 17, 2023, Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss. ECF No. 7. Defendant’s 14 Motion also included a request for judicial notice.2 ECF No. 7-2. On May 1, 2023, Plaintiff 15 filed an Opposition (“Opposition” or “Oppo.”) to the Motion. ECF No. 8. On May 18, 16 2023, Defendant filed a Reply (“Reply”) in support of its Motion. ECF No. 9. 17 II. LEGAL STANDARD 18 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires that a complaint include “a short and 19 plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Bell Atl. Corp. 20 v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007). A complaint must plead sufficient factual 21 allegations to “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570. A claim is 22

23 1 An “oversized vehicle” is “any motorized vehicle . . . or combination of motorized 24 vehicles and/or non-motorized vehicles or trailers that meets or exceeds 22 feet in length.” 25 Carlsbad Mun. Code § 10.40.180.

26 2 Defendant requests that the Court take judicial notice of different municipal code sections. 27 ECF No. 7-2. The Court GRANTS Defendant’s request as municipal codes and ordinances are “proper subjects for judicial notice.” Tollis, Inc. v. Cnty. of San Diego, 505 F.3d 935, 28 1 facially plausible when the facts pleaded “allow[] the court to draw the reasonable 2 inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 3 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). A court may accept all factual 4 allegations as true, but it need not accept legal conclusions as true. Id.; Twombly, 550 U.S. 5 at 555. 6 Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a party may move to dismiss a 7 complaint for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8 12(b)(6). A court may grant a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal when the plaintiff fails to present a 9 cognizable legal theory or allege sufficient facts to support a cognizable legal theory. 10 Shroyer v. New Cingular Wireless Servs., Inc., 622 F.3d 1035, 1041 (9th Cir. 2010) 11 (quoting Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001)). While a complaint “does 12 not require ‘detailed factual allegations,’” to avoid a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, it 13 does require “more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” 14 Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555). For purposes of ruling on a 15 Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court “accept[s] factual allegations in the complaint as true and 16 construe[s] the pleadings in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Manzarek v. 17 St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 519 F.3d 1025, 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). 18 The court has an obligation where the plaintiff “is pro se, particularly in civil rights 19 cases, to construe the pleadings liberally and to afford the [plaintiff] the benefit of any 20 doubt.” Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 342 n.7 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Bretz v. Kelman, 21 773 F.2d 1026, 1027 n.1 (9th Cir. 1985)) (emphasis omitted). The court, however, “may 22 not supply essential elements of the claim that were not initially pled.” Ivey v. Bd. of 23 Regents of the Univ. of Alaska, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir. 1982). 24 III. DISCUSSION 25 Defendant moves to dismiss all causes of action in Plaintiff’s Complaint under Rule 26 12(b)(6). See ECF No. 7-1, Motion to Dismiss (“Motion” or “Mot.”). The Court addresses 27 each of Defendant’s arguments in turn. 28 / / / 1 A. Eighth Amendment 2 First, Defendant moves to dismiss Plaintiff’s first, second, third, fourth, and fifth 3 causes of action under the Eighth Amendment. See id. at 4–8. 4 1. Excessive Fines Clause 5 Defendant argues that Plaintiff’s Excessive Fines Clause claim should be dismissed 6 because the parking fines are not grossly disproportionate to the conduct alleged. See id. at 7 5. 8 The Eighth Amendment prohibits “excessive fines.” U.S. Const. amend. VIII. “The 9 Excessive Fines Clause limits the government's power to extract payments, whether in cash 10 or in kind, ‘as punishment for some offense.’” Austin v. United States, 509 U.S. 602, 609 11 (1993) (emphasis omitted). A fine may be unconstitutionally excessive if the amount “is 12 grossly disproportional to the gravity of the defendant’s offense.” Pimentel v. City of Los 13 Angeles, 974 F.3d 917, 921 (9th Cir. 2020) (held that a $63.00 parking violation fine was 14 not grossly disproportional to the underlying offense and did not violate the Excessive 15 Fines Clause); United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321, 336–37 (1998).

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Bluebook (online)
Stewart v. City of Carlsbad, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-city-of-carlsbad-casd-2024.