King v. Philadelphia Parking Authority
King v. Philadelphia Parking Authority
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
This case arises from Plaintiff Tony Dphax King’s suit against Defendants Philadelphia Parking Authority (“the PPA”) and the City of Philadelphia (“the City”) for constitutional and state law violations allegedly suffered in connection with Plaintiffs receipt and appeal of multiple parking tickets. Defendants have moved to dismiss. For the following reasons, the Court will grant the motions to dismiss.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff asserts that he reasonably interpreted Philadelphia parking ordinances
During the pendency of Plaintiffs appeal, Defendants demanded payment of his ticket fines, now amounting to thousands of dollars. Id. ¶¶ 18-19. Defendants allegedly intentionally reported these debts to major credit agencies, which lowered Plaintiffs credit rating and prevented him from obtaining a loan for needed home improvements. Id. ¶ 19. In November 2013, Defendants allegedly reported Plaintiff to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which suspended Plaintiffs driver’s license until he could pay the ticket fines. Id. ¶¶ 22-24.
In light of the above factual allegations, Plaintiff brings three counts against Defendants: a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,-alleging a Fourteenth Amendment due process violation against the City (Count I); a similar § 1983 claim, alleging a Fourteenth Amendment due process violation against the PPA (Count II); and various state law claims against “currently unnamed and unknown employees” of the City and the PPA, including “attempted theft (trespass), false light privacy and defamation, ... and malicious prosecution” (Count III). Id. ¶¶ 32-39. Plaintiff alleges that he suffered-financial harm, reputa-tional harm, and emotional distress, and requests compensatory and punitive damages. Id. ¶ 40.
II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On February 18,' 2014, Plaintiff filed his initial pro se Complaint. ECF Nos. 1-1, 4. After the Court dismissed Defendants’ first two motions to dismiss without prejudice, Plaintiff filed a counseled Second Amended Complaint on December 22, 2014. ECF No. 21. On January 8, 2015, the PPA filed a Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 22), to which Plaintiff responded on February 5, 2015 (ECF No. 27). On February 2, 2015, the City filed a Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 26), to which Plaintiff responded on February 19, 2015 (ECF No. 29). On March 2, 2015, the Court heard oral argument on this matter. These motions are now ripe for disposition.
III. STANDARD OF REVIEW
In considering a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Rule 12(b)(6), the court must “accept as true all allegations
In further fleshing out the plausibility requirement, the Third Circuit has held that the pleadings must contain sufficient factual allegations so as to state a facially plausible claim for relief. See, e.g., Gelman v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 583 F.3d 187, 190 (3d Cir. 2009). A claim possesses such plausibility “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Although a plaintiff is entitled to all reasonable inferences from the facts alleged, a plaintiffs legal conclusions are not entitled to deference and the court is “not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation.” Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986) (cited with approval in Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). In deciding a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court is to limit its inquiry to the facts alleged in the complaint and its attachments, matters of public record, as well as undisputedly authentic documents if the complainant’s claims are based upon these documents. See Jordan v. Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel, 20 F.3d 1250, 1261 (3d Cir. 1994); Pension Benefit Guar. Corp. v. White Consol. Indus., Inc., 998 F.2d 1192, 1196 (3d Cir. 1993).
IV. DISCUSSION
Plaintiffs constitutional allegations can be distilled to three individual claims: De
Before moving on to the substantive claims, the Court must pause briefly to address Defendants’ identities and scopes of operation. Plaintiff has not clearly demarcated the alleged actions attributable to each party separately, and notes: “Additionally based on the comity of interests between the defendants, plaintiff requires discovery to ferret out what acts were done by the City of Philadelphia and which acts were done by the PPA, or which were done collectively.” PL’s Resp. PPA’s Mot. Dismiss 9. However, as counsel for Defendant PPA noted at oral argument, the Philadelphia City Code has prescribed the functions of each Defendant.
The Code provides “[t]hat the City of Philadelphia, ... is authorized to provide for parking violation enforcement outside of the criminal justice system, and an administrative process for the adjudication of parking violations i[n] an efficient, fair and reasonable alternative thereto.” Phila. Code § 12-2801(3). In addition, “the City of Philadelphia ... has ... delegated to the Philadelphia Parking Authority certain powers relating to the administration, supervision and enforcement of on-street parking regulations.” § 12-2801(4). Moreover, this “system of administrative adjudication of parking violations should provide for the proper separation of the administrative and executive functions from the adjudicatory function in the enforcement process.” § 12-2801(5).
The Director of Finance, a City position that occupies a place on the Mayor’s Cabinet, see § 3-102, “shall have the power and duty ... to provide by regulation for the hearing and determination of cases involving alleged violations of provisions of [the Traffic Code] relating to parking,” § 12-2802(1), and “shall appoint such Parking Hearing Examiners and such other persons as shall be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Chapter,” § 12-2802(2). The Code provides that “[e]ach adjudication of a parking violation pursuant to this Chapter shall be conducted by a Parking Hearing Examiner,” § 12-2807(1), and details the appeals process, which includes a hearing before a Parking Appeals Panel, see § 12-2808.
The City Code sections quoted above describe a system wherein the PPA’s role in administering parking tickets is distinct from the City’s role in providing a forum where parking violations can be contested and appealed. Applying this legal framework to Plaintiffs constitutional claims under § 1983, the Court holds that although the City may be held liable for any of the claims, the PPA may be held liable only for the ticketing enforcement claim. The analysis below proceeds on this basis.
A. Legal Standard
Under Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, the Supreme Court held that municipalities may be sued for monetary damages under § 1983 where the constitutional violation alleged results from an official policy or custom. 436 U.S. 658, 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), Accordingly, “a municipality cannot be held liable under
(1) the municipality had a policy or custom that deprived [the plaintiff] of his constitutional rights; (2) the municipality acted deliberately and was the moving force behind the deprivation; and (3) that [the plaintiffs] injury was caused by the identified policy or custom.
Grant v. Winik, 948 F.Supp.2d 480, 512-13 (E.D.Pa. 2013) (Robreno, J.) (citing Bd. of Cnty. Comm’rs of Bryan Cnty. v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 403-04, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997)).
B. Analysis
Although Plaintiff was not clear — in either the Second Amended Complaint (which is his third try at stating a viable cause of action) or his briefing — regarding the precise legal theory under which he brings his constitutional claims, Plaintiffs counsel confirmed at oral argument that' Plaintiff proceeds under both substantive and procedural due process. The Court therefore evaluates Plaintiffs Monell claims under each theory separately.
1. Substantive Due Process
“[T]he core of the concept of due process is protection against arbitrary action and ... only the most egregious official conduct can be said to be arbitrary in the constitutional sense.” United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. v. Twp. of Warrington, 316 F.3d 392, 399 (3d Cir. 2003) (quoting Cnty. of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 845-46, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998)) (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, “the cognizable level of executive abuse of power [i]s that which shocks the conscience.” Id. (quoting Lewis, 523 U.S. at 846, 118 S.Ct. 1708) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Third Circuit’s “cases have repeatedly acknowledged that .executive action violates substantive due process only when it shocks the conscience but that the meaning of this standard varies depending on the factual context.” Id. at 399-400.
Defendants argue that Plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts to satisfy a Monell claim based on substantive due process. City’s Mem. . Supp. Mot. Dismiss 5-7;
The Court agrees with Defendants’ assessment. Plaintiffs claims — that he was denied a fair hearing when it was held in his absence, that the hearing process is inherently unfair, and that the parking code is arbitrarily enforced — are not supported by sufficient factual allegations to show either that they rise to a conscience-shocking level or that Defendants established a policy or custom that violated Plaintiffs rights in these ways. First, in his claim that the hearing was held in his absence, Plaintiff pled that Defendants “scheduled a hearing for a date for which it knew that plaintiff would be out of town.” SAC ¶ 12. Plaintiff offers nothing to show that this one-off action was done in compliance with any City custom or policy, as required under Monell. Perhaps the BAA hearing officer acted inappropriately, but because the City cannot be held liable under respondeat superior, and because Plaintiff does not plead otherwise, this claim fails. See Monell, 436 U.S. at 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018.
Finally, regarding Plaintiffs ticketing enforcement claim, he points to City Code sections 12-913
2. Procedural Due Process
Having found Plaintiffs substantive due process claims to be fatally flawed, the Court turns to his procedural due process claims. The Third Circuit has held:
To state a claim under § 1983 for deprivation of procedural due process rights, a plaintiff must allege that (1) he was deprived of an individual interest that is encompassed within the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of “life, liberty, or property,” and (2) the procedures available to him did not provide*656 “due process of law.” Alvin v. Suzuki 227 F.3d 107, 116 (3d Cir. 2000).
Hill v. Borough of Kutztown, 455 F.3d 225, 233-34 (3d Cir. 2006).
Here, numerous references to property and liberty interests are liberally strewn throughout the Second Amended Complaint, although most appear to relate to Plaintiffs state law claims. See, e.g., SAC ¶¶ 17, 20, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. At oral argument, Plaintiffs counsel referenced liberty interests, see Hearing Tr. 17:14-17, Mar. 2, 2015 (noting “the liberty to park the scooter on the sidewalk as well as the liberty to travel within the City”), and also potentially a property interest, see id. 13:16-18 (referencing a scheme by the City and the PPA to “take money from people who drive scooters”). Even though the precise liberty or property interest at issue remains undefined, the Court assumes for the sake of argument that Plaintiff has identified one.
Plaintiffs more difficult task is to show that he was not afforded due process of law when Defendants allegedly deprived him of his liberty and/or property interests; and, indeed, he has not done so. Under procedural due process, the Court analyzes together Plaintiffs three central constitutional claims — that he was denied a fair hearing when it was held in his absence, that the hearing process is inherently unfair, and that the parking code is arbitrarily enforced. Plaintiff argues that he was not afforded due process of law when the BAA held a hearing in his absence. See SAC ¶ 12; Hearing Tr. 18:2-4. However, as Plaintiffs counsel conceded at oral argument, Plaintiff had two opportunities to appeal his parking tickets before the BAA. See Hearing Tr. 18:12-13 (“Now, he had a second hearing, that’s admitted.”). He attended the first of these hearings and argued his case to the BAA hearing examiner, who ruled against him. PPA’s Mem. Supp. Mot. Dismiss Ex. A, King, 102 A.3d at 1074-75. Plaintiff argues that the hearing he did attend was constitutionally flawed because the arbiters are employees of Defendants and thus not neutral. See SAC ¶ 13-14; Hearing Tr. 18:14-15 (contending that “there really was no hearing because this is just a scheme”); id. 19:9-10 (“[I]t is no more than a scheme, because the hearing officers are employees of the City or PPA.”). He also argues that the structure of the hearings does not afford due process. See Hearing Tr. 19:25-20:1 (“[The hearing examiners] don’t let you go into much detail about, you know, why it is not fair and so forth.”); id. 20:20-21:7 (“THE COURT: Okay. Well, you think the whole system is rigged, it is a sham? [PLAINTIFF’S COUNSEL:] At least with respect to the scooter parking, Your Honor. He attempted, I know, at the second hearing
In conclusion, Plaintiff has not sufficiently pled “factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that [Defendants are] liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937. Plaintiff has been given two opportunities to amend his Complaint, as well as an adequate hearing at oral argument. These opportunities have not generated sufficient pleadings — nor, based on the content alleged, are they likely to. See Phillips, 515 F.3d at 234 (noting that the pleading standard ‘“simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence of the necessary element” (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955)). Accordingly, the Court finds that further attempts by Plaintiff to amend are futile and will dismiss with prejudice the constitutional claims against Defendants.
Y. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the Court will grant the City’s and the PPA’s motions to dismiss. An appropriate order follows.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 10th day of April, 2015, for the reasons stated in the accompanying memorandum opinion, it is hereby ORDERED as follows:
(1) Defendant Philadelphia Parking Authority’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 22) is GRANTED;
(2) Defendant City of Philadelphia’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 26) is GRANTED;
(3) Counts I and II of the Second Amended Complaint (ECF No. 21), for violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, are DISMISSED with prejudice;
(4) Count III of the Second Amended Complaint (ECF No. 21), for violations of state law, are DISMISSED without prejudice; and
(5) The Clerk of Court shall mark the case CLOSED.
AND IT IS SO ORDERED.
. Plaintiff states that "[b]y its plain wording, the parking code at sections 12-913 and 12-
. In Conley, the Supreme Court had held that "a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” 355 U.S. at 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99 (emphasis added).
. As the Phillips court noted, the plausibility requirement boils down to the following: " 'staling ... a claim requires a complaint with enough factual matter (taken as true) to suggest’ the required element. 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.” 515 F.3d at 234 (citations omitted) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955).
. Because the pages in Plaintiff's briefs are not numbered, the Court refers to the page numbers imposed by ECF.
. Because the pages in the City's brief are not numbered, the Court refers to the page numbers imposed by ECF.
. Section 12-913 reads, in relevant part: "Except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or to protect the safety of any person or vehicle[,] ... no person shall: (a) Stop, stand or park a vehicle: ... (ii) On a sidewalk....” Phila. Code § 12-913.
. There appears to be some confusion about which BAA hearing Plaintiff was present for and which was held in his absence. Regardless, as noted above, the parties agree that two heárings were held, and that Plaintiff attended one of them.
. In addition, Plaintiffs Monell claim against the City fails for the same reasons as under substantive due process above.
. While this Court has "the constitutional power” to adjudicate a pendent state law claim after a federal law claim has dropped out, it retains full discretion whether to do so or not. Lentino v. Fringe Emp. Plans, Inc., 611 F.2d 474, 478 (3d Cir. 1979). Here, the Court will dismiss Plaintiff's state law claim without prejudice.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Tony Dphax KING v. PHILADELPHIA PARKING AUTHORITY
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published