Williams v. City of New York
Williams v. City of New York
Opinion of the Court
OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff Diana Williams, who is profoundly deaf and communicates primarily through sign language, seeks a permanent injunction pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) requiring the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) to adopt policies and procedures to provide accommodations to hearing-impaired persons upon arrest and incarceration.
Defendant has moved for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) arguing that Plaintiff lacks standing because the complaint does not allege a likelihood of future harm. In opposition, Plaintiff seeks leave to amend the complaint to plead additional facts to bolster her standing. The Court has evaluated Defendant’s motion and the additional facts Plaintiff seeks to allege in a Second Amended Complaint. Because the likelihood of future harm would be entirely conjectural even if Plaintiff were granted leave to amend at this late juncture,
BACKGROUND
On September 11, 2011, NYPD officers responded to a call from a residential building owned by Plaintiff and her husband in Staten Island where a tenant was moving out due to nonpayment of rent. Compl. ¶¶ 7-9. Plaintiff attempted to communicate with a police officer but was unable to do so effectively without the assistance of an interpreter. Compl. ¶ 10. For reasons that are unclear, Plaintiff was arrested. At the police station, despite repeated requests, she was not provided an interpreter to communicate the charges against her or to explain her rights. Compl. ¶¶ 10-12. She was confined to a cell and began to experience panic attacks; she was then taken to a hospital, which did have a sign language interpreter on staff. Compl. ¶¶ 14-15. The hospital interpreter allegedly conveyed Plaintiffs request to the police officers that she be provided an interpreter to explain the nature of the charges and the duration of her detention. Compl. ¶ 15. When her panic attacks subsided, Plaintiff was returned to the police station-still without the assistance of a sign language interpreter — only to be returned to the hospital when her panic attacks resumed. Compl. ¶¶ 16-17. • This time, no interpreter was provided by the hospital; the hospital allegedly drew blood without her informed consent and injected her with a sedative. Compl. ¶ 17. After spending a night at the precinct, Plaintiff was released the next day; all charges were dropped. Compl. ¶ 21. This action followed.
DISCUSSION
Defendant asserts that Plaintiff lacks standing to pursue injunctive relief. Because Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a likelihood of future harm from the NYPD’s failure to provide sign language interpreters to arrested or incarcerated hearing-impaired persons, the Court concludes that she lacks standing.
Article III of the Constitution limits the jurisdiction of federal courts to the resolution of “cases” and “controversies.” U.S. Const, art. Ill, § 1. The jurisdictional limitation on who has standing to seek injunc-tive relief is independent from the merits of the Plaintiffs claim that her constitutional rights were violated. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 89-90, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998) (contrasting standing, as an issue implicating a federal court’s subject matter jurisdiction, with the failure to state a cognizable claim, which is not a jurisdictional defect). If a plaintiff lacks standing to seek particular relief, a federal court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to entertain the request. Shain v. Ellison, 356 F.3d 211, 215 (2d Cir. 2004).
“An objection to standing is properly made on a Rule 12(b)(1) motion.” Tasini v. New York Times, Co., Inc., 184 F.Supp.2d 350, 354 (S.D.N.Y. 2002). After the close of pleadings, however, a party raising a Rule 12(b) non-waivable defense may do so by bringing a Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings. Patel v. Contemporary Classics of Beverly Hills, 259 F.3d 123, 126 (2d Cir. 2001). The standard for granting a Rule 12(c) motion is identical to that of the analogous Rule 12(b) motion. Id. In the face of a Rule 12(b)(1) motion, “[t]he burden is on the plaintiff asserting jurisdiction to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that jurisdiction is proper.” Tasini, 184 F.Supp.2d at 353. When a court assesses a lack-of-standing argument on the basis of the pleadings, it must accept as true the factual allegations in the complaint. WC Capital Mgmt., LLC v. UBS Sec., LLC, 711 F.3d 322, 329 (2d Cir. 2013).
“In order to meet the constitutional minimum of standing to seek in-junctive relief, [a plaintiff] must carry the burden of establishing that ‘[s]he has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury as the result of the challenged official conduct.’ ” Shain, 356 F.3d at 215 (quoting Lyons, 461 U.S. at 101-02, 103 S.Ct. 1660). “In doing this, [s]he cannot rely on past injury to satisfy the injury requirement but must show a likelihood that [s]he will be injured in the future. Finally, an abstract injury is not enough; rather, the injury or threat of injury must be both real and immediate, not conjectural or hypothetical.” Id. (internal citations and quotations omitted).
The vast majority of cases in which in-junctive .relief is sought under the ADA arise under Title III, which addresses public accommodations.
Under established Second Circuit precedent, a plaintiff adequately pleads a “real and immediate threat of repeated injury” where (1) the plaintiff alleges past injury under the ADA; (2) it is reasonable to infer that the discrimina
City of Los Angeles v. Lyons “occupies much of th[e] territory” related a citizen’s standing to seek an injunction against police practices surrounding arrests. Shain, 356 F.3d at 215 (citing Lyons, 461 U.S. at 105-06, 103 S.Ct. 1660). In Lyons, the Supreme Court held that the plaintiff, who was placed in a chokehold during, a minor traffic stop, lacked standing to seek prospective injunctive relief barring Los An-geles police officers from using chokeholds, even though his past injury supplied a predicate for compensatory damages. 461 U.S. at 105-06, 103 S.Ct. 1660. Lyons ultimately concluded that the plaintiff lacked standing because there was insufficient “likelihood that he will again be wronged in a similar way.” Id. at 111, 103 S.Ct. 1660. Relying on this language, the Second Circuit in Shain held that a plaintiff lacked standing to seek permanent in-junctive relief barring a blanket strip search policy for all misdemeanor arres-tees when he had himself been subject to the policy after a misdemeanor arrest and overnight detention. 356 F.3d at 213-14.
Plaintiff distinguishes Lyons and Shain by arguing that the need of hearing-impaired persons to communicate with police officers extends to peaceful or protective reasons and is not limited to the arrest context. PI. Mem. Law Opp. at 7, 10. That is, of course, true, but it does not
The conclusion that Plaintiff lacks standing is even more apparent when we consider the request for injunctive relief in the Complaint, which relates entirely to the provision of sign language interpreters for individuals under arrest or in detention. As to that, Plaintiff alleges only one past arrest and that arrest occurred almost three years ago. She has alleged no contact with the NYPD since the filing of this suit, peaceful or otherwise. Cf. Shain, 356 F.3d at 215 (finding plaintiff failed to establish likelihood of a future encounter and arrest because he had no criminal record, had never before been arrested, and had not been rearrested or had any encounters with the police in the year between his arrest and the filing of the lawsuit). Although there is certainly some chance that the Plaintiff might find herself arrested again by police officers who do not offer her a sign language interpreter, that is the same speculative chance that the Supreme Court in Lyons and the Second Circuit in Shain found insufficient to confer standing. See also MacIssac, 770 F.Supp.2d at 601 (finding no standing “given how speculative it is that Maclssac will be stopped, arrested, and subjected to the use of a Taser stun gun yet again”). To find that Plaintiff is likely to suffer future harm from the NYPD’s failure to provide sign language interpreters upon arrest or incarceration would require conjecture and speculation, which is not permissible under established precedent. Therefore, this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over Count VII of Plaintiffs complaint.
Request to Amend the Complaint
As a general rule, a “court should freely give leave [to amend a Complaint] when justice so requires.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a)(2). “Notwithstanding the liberality of the general rule, [w]hether to allow amendment is a decision that rests in the discretion of the district court.... Thus, a court may deny permission to amend, in whole or in part, if there is a proper reason to do so.” Lincoln v. Potter, 418 F.Supp.2d 443, 454-55 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). On the one hand, “[m]ere delay ... absent a showing of bad faith or undue prejudice,
This action has been pending for two years, and now, in the face of a motion for judgment on the pleadings as to her First Aménded Complaint, Plaintiff is seeking leave to amend a second time in order to plead facts in support of standing. Plaintiff proposes to cure the jurisdictional defects by showing a likelihood of peaceful encounters with the NYPD, not just the likelihood of being arrested. For the reasons already noted, such an amendment would be futile because Plaintiff can only speculate about future encounters with the police even in a peaceable context. Under these circumstances, the Court declines to grant leave to amend.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant City of New York’s amended motion for judgment on the pleadings is GRANTED. Plaintiffs request for leave to amend her complaint is DENIED. The Clerk of Court is directed to terminate Docket Entries 23 and 25.
SO ORDERED.
. The Complaint also alleges: a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; that she was discriminated against on the basis of her disability in violation of federal, state and city law; that her arrest on September 11, 2011, lacked probable cause; and various other torts. Those claims are not at issue in the pending motion.
. This action commenced on September 7, 2012. With leave of Court, Plaintiff filed her First Amended Complaint on February 4, 2014. Significant discovery has taken place, including Plaintiff's deposition. Although Plaintiff argues that Defendant had a full and fair opportunity to depose her, Defendant suggests that the proposed amendment would require an additional deposition of the Plaintiff at considerable expense to the Defendant.
. A "place of public accommodation” is a “facility operated by a private entity whose operations affect commerce.” 28 C.F.R. § 36.104.
. Kreisler, and the two cases it cites in support of its standard for injunctive relief under the ADA, involved a reasonable accommodation challenge under Title III, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq. See Kreisler, 731 F.3d at 187-88 (citing Camarillo, 518 F.3d at 158 (interpreting Title III of the ADA); Pickern v. Holiday Quality Foods, Inc., 293 F.3d 1133, 1137-38 (9th Cir. 2002) (same)). The Second Circuit did not limit the standard to claims under Title III and quotes its earlier decision in Shain — a non-ADA case involving a challenge to a jail's strip search policy — for the requirement that “[pjlaintiffs seeking injunctive relief must also prove that the identified injury in fact presents a ‘real and immediate threat of repeated injury.' ” Id. at 187 (quoting Shain, 356 F.3d at 215).
. Plaintiff argues that Shain is distinguishable because the prospective relief at issue was a permanent injunction following a determination that the policy at issue was unconstitutional. PI. Mem. Law Opp. at 11-12. Because standing is a jurisdictional issue that must be evaluated at all stages of proceedings, that distinction is not material.
. Plaintiff proffers facts that make it reasonable to believe that she will return to New York City. When she is in New York City, she asserts that she may have a "peaceful or an emergency encounter with the police" that will require reasonable accommodation for her disability. PL Mem. Law Opp. at 10.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Diana WILLIAMS v. CITY OF NEW YORK
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published