Zach Hillesheim v. Holiday Stationstores, Inc.
Opinion
Zach Hillesheim alleges that Holiday Stationstores discriminated against him by failing to have an accessible parking lot at one of its stores. Hillesheim's complaint identifies three alleged problems with the parking lot, each giving rise to a separate claim. For two of the three claims, Hillesheim suffered no injury, so we vacate the district court's decision and instruct the court on remand to return them to state court. We remand the third claim, even though Hillesheim has standing to assert it, to allow the district court to consider whether to send it back to state court with the others.
I.
Hillesheim is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair for mobility. When Hillesheim visited a Holiday store in Mankato, Minnesota, he observed that the store's two handicap-accessible parking spaces were not marked with vertical sign posts. One of the spaces also lacked an adjacent access aisle, which provides extra room for individuals with disabilities to move in and out of their vehicles. Also present was a garbage can near the top of the curb ramp leading into the store. Hillesheim claims that he could not have safely navigated the ramp in his wheelchair, so instead of risking injury, he decided not to enter the store. These three alleged defects are at the heart of this lawsuit.
Holiday inspected the parking lot and fixed the alleged defects. It removed the handicap-accessible space lacking an access aisle because it determined that the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") only required it to have one space, not two, given the size of the parking lot. It also placed an ADA-compliant vertical sign above the remaining space and removed the garbage can from the curb ramp out of an "abundance of care."
Before Holiday made these changes, however, Hillesheim filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging violations of the ADA and the Minnesota Human Rights Act ("MHRA"). Holiday removed the case to federal court.
See
The district court granted Holiday's motion for summary judgment. In addition to dismissing Hillesheim's ADA claims, the court dismissed Hillesheim's MHRA claims with prejudice rather than remanding them to state court. On appeal, Hillesheim challenges the court's treatment of his MHRA claims.
II.
We review de novo the district court's determination that Hillesheim lacked Article III standing.
Park v. Forest Serv. of the U.S.
,
To meet the "irreducible constitutional minimum" for Article III standing: (1) a plaintiff must have suffered an "injury in fact," (2) that is "fairly traceable to the challenged conduct," and (3) is "likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision."
Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins
, --- U.S. ----,
At summary judgment, Hillesheim had to do more than just rely on the allegations from his complaint, because "[a] party invoking federal jurisdiction must support each of the standing requirements with the same kind and degree of evidence at the successive stages of litigation as any other matter."
Constitution Party of S.D.v. Nelson
,
Hillesheim's evidence was thin. On the access-aisle and vertical-signage claims, his declaration did little more than describe the alleged violations, other than stating that he was deterred from visiting the store in the future.
1
It did not explain how the lack of an access aisle or insufficient vertical signage injured him. It made no mention, for example, of whether he had difficulty identifying which spots were handicap accessible or even whether the alleged defects caused him to leave without entering the store. Alleging bare violations of the ADA without evidence of an actual injury is insufficient to establish Article III standing.
See
Braitberg v. Charter Commc'ns, Inc.
,
The district court drew the wrong conclusion, however, when it dismissed both claims with prejudice. If it turns out after removal that a plaintiff lacks standing to bring a claim in federal court, as happened here, then a district court must remand the claim to state court.
Hillesheim's garbage-can claim is a different story. In contrast to the other claims, Hillesheim's declaration connected the placement of the garbage can to his decision to leave. It stated that he could not safely navigate the ramp without risking injury because the garbage can blocked his path of travel and trying to maneuver around it could have caused his wheelchair to tip over. By offering specific evidence that the allegedly dangerous circumstances caused him not to enter the store, Hillesheim did enough to establish an injury-in-fact. He was not required, as Holiday suggests, to have a go of it to establish Article III standing.
See
Disability Support All. v. Heartwood Enters., LLC
,
In reaching a contrary conclusion, the district court made two errors. First, by faulting Hillesheim for failing to provide sufficient detail about the width and slope of the ramp, the court confused the standing inquiry with the merits. To establish Article III standing, all that Hillesheim was required to show was that he suffered an injury, not that the placement of the garbage can violated the MHRA.
See
Red River Freethinkers v. City of Fargo
,
Second, the district court erred in treating a photograph that Hillesheim submitted along with his declaration as definitive proof that he had plenty of room to maneuver around the garbage can. To be sure, there are rare instances in which overwhelming photographic or video evidence may point to the absence of a genuine issue of material fact at summary judgment.
See
Scott v. Harris
,
One loose end remains. Now that we have concluded that the district court erred when it dismissed the garbage-can claim for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, the question is what to do with it. Under
The landscape has changed since the district court first exercised its discretion under the supplemental-jurisdiction statute. Now only one claim remains. When it granted summary judgment, the court dismissed Hillesheim's ADA claims. We have now instructed the district court to return two of Hillesheim's state-law claims to state court. The district court is entitled to determine on remand whether it still wishes to exercise its discretion in the same way.
See generally
Brown v. Mortg. Elec. Registration Sys., Inc.
,
III.
We vacate the district court's judgment with instructions to remand Hillesheim's access-aisle and vertical-signage claims to state court and to consider whether to *1012 exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining claim.
Under
Davis v. Anthony, Inc.
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Zach HILLESHEIM, Plaintiff - Appellant v. HOLIDAY STATIONSTORES, INC., Defendant - Appellee
- Cited By
- 19 cases
- Status
- Published