Brooks v. Dist. of Columbia
Brooks v. Dist. of Columbia
Opinion of the Court
Three blind vending-facility operators challenge the District of Columbia's inspections of their establishments and calculation of their income under a federal program that gives preferences to visually impaired vendors. Although Plaintiffs frame their challenge under various anti-discrimination statutes, the substance of their complaints concerns the District's administration of the program. As a result, they were required to litigate their claims through local administrative processes before filing suit in federal court, which they did not do. The Court therefore must dismiss the case.
I. Background
Congress enacted the Randolph-Sheppard Act ("RSA" or "Act") in 1936 to provide employment opportunities to individuals with vision impairments.
Participating states (including the District of Columbia) and the federal government share responsibility for administering the Act. The Secretary of Education interprets and enforces the Act and designates a state licensing agency ("SLA") to administer the Act within each participating state.
Plaintiffs Hazell Brooks, Derwin Patten, and Roy Patten are current or past participants in the District of Columbia's Randolph Sheppard Vending Facilities Program ("RSVFP" or "Program"). Second Am. Compl., ECF No. 17-1, ("SAC") ¶¶ 3-5. They allege that they have suffered "ongoing discrimination" based on their blindness arising from the District's administration of the Program, including "discriminatory inspections of blind vendors' facilities," "failure to provide adequate auxiliary aids for blind vendors," and "excessive or unauthorized deductions, set asides, and other such levies and expenses on vending machine" and "vending operations."
II. Legal Standard
The District of Columbia has moved to dismiss the case for failure to exhaust administrative remedies under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).
III. Analysis
A. Mandatory Exhaustion under the Randolph-Sheppard Act
The Randolph-Sheppard Act contains a detailed administrative grievance procedure. A licensee "who is dissatisfied with any action arising from the operation or administration of the vending facility program" is entitled to a "full evidentiary hearing" by the SLA. 20 U.S.C. § 107d-1(a) ; see also
*45§ 218.2(c). If the licensee elects the latter, the Secretary submits the complaint to an arbitration panel pursuant to 20 U.S.C. § 107d-1(a). The panel's decision is considered "final and binding" except as subject to judicial review as a final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act. Id.;
The D.C. Circuit has long held that a licensee must exhaust these administrative remedies before seeking judicial review in federal court. Comm. of Blind Vendors of D.C., 28 F.3d at 133-35 ; Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of Am. v. Weinberger,
B. Plaintiffs' Counterarguments
Plaintiffs offer three reasons why the Act's exhaustion requirement does not bar their claims: (1) they do not in fact allege claims under the Randolph-Sheppard Act; (2) D.C. waived the Act's exhaustion requirement when it passed the District of Columbia Human Rights Act; and (3) the OAH does not have jurisdiction over RSA claims. None is persuasive.
1. Nature of the claims
First, it makes no difference that Plaintiffs cloak their claims in terms of discrimination under the ADA, Rehabilitation Act, and DCHRA, because the Court is not bound by the specific labels used in the complaint. A plaintiff cannot circumvent a mandatory exhaustion or other jurisdictional requirements simply by relabeling a claim. See Brown v. Gen. Servs. Admin.,
Looking beyond labels, the substance of Plaintiffs' allegations demonstrates that they challenge, in three general ways, the District's administration of the RSVFP. Beginning with the most obvious claims, Counts 4 through 6 challenge DDS-RSA's alleged failure to provide specific "auxiliary aids"-such as "human readers[,] automated reading machines," SAC ¶ 42, and "modern electronic magnifiers,"
Next, Counts 7 through 18 turn on Plaintiffs' broad assertion that the District used "secret mathematical formulas" to "charge[ ] class members, including plaintiffs, with vending machine deductions, set asides, and other such levies and expenses that the District of Columbia had no right or authority to charge against the account of plaintiffs and other class members." SAC ¶¶ 13(a), (b); see also
And finally, Counts 1 through 3 challenge the use of "inadequately trained DDS-RSA monitors" rather than "professionally trained Department of Health ["DOH"] credentialed food inspectors" to inspect RSVFP participants' facilities. SAC ¶¶ 12(a), 17-38. According to Plaintiffs, "sighted vendors"-that is, owners of non-RSVFP food establishments-benefit *47from the professional counseling provided by DOH "credentialed inspectors," while Plaintiffs do not.
Plaintiffs' references to a "segregated regime" perhaps give Counts 1 through 3 more of a ring of discrimination that the two sets of claims discussed above. The Court nonetheless concludes that the substance of those counts turns on the operation of the "regime" itself-the qualifications of the RSVFP "monitors," the forms and inspection reports those monitors use, and the kind of supervision and counseling those monitors provide to blind vendors. These kinds of questions go directly to the administration of the Act and are properly subject to its exhaustion requirements.
Alternatively, even if Counts 1 through 3 could somehow be interpreted as challenging discriminatory conduct outside the administration of the program, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have not plausibly stated claims under the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, or the DCHRA. To sustain a claim under those statutes, a plaintiff must show she was "excluded from participation in," "denied the benefits of," or "subject to discrimination" by a public entity "by reason of" her disability.
Plaintiffs' theory regarding Counts 1 though 3 has been a moving target to say the least. In the Second Amended Complaint, they allege that they were denied the benefits and services that come from counseling by trained and licensed DOH inspectors, leading to the aforementioned "segregated regime" where sighted vendors received quality DOH inspections while blind vendors receive unauthorized, low-quality DDA-RSA inspections. SAC ¶¶ 19-21. But the District pointed out in its motion to dismiss that it is "a matter of indisputable public record [that] the RSVFP vending facilities plaintiffs operate are licensed and inspected by DOH." MTD at 22. In support, the District attaches to its motion copies of the most recent publicly available DOH inspection reports of Plaintiffs' facilities.
Plaintiffs then shifted their theory for these counts. See Opp'n at 28-31. In their opposition, they argue that they "labored under segregated DDS-RSA ultra vires *48inspections by inadequately trained DDS-RSA employees who used bogus inspection report forms, and this happened while the plaintiffs faced additional inspections from DOH" while "sighted proprietors faced inspections solely from DOH, which used credentialed inspectors." Id. at 29 (emphases added). In other words, Plaintiffs now complain that while sighted vendors only received inspections by DOH inspectors, blind vendors received two-fold inspections by both DOH inspectors and DDS-RSA monitors. But Plaintiffs did not receive the additional inspections by DDS-RSA monitors by reason of their blindness; they received additional inspections because of their participation in the District's RSVFP. For instance, the RSA implementing regulations require SLAs to "carry out full responsibility for the supervision and management of each vending facility in its program in accordance with its established rules and regulations, this part, and the terms and conditions governing the permit" and also "take adequate steps to assure that each vendor understands the provisions of the permit and any agreement under which he operates, as evidenced by his signed statements."
Ultimately though, Plaintiffs' allusions to segregation and discriminatory intent do not change the fact that their claims turn on the administration of the RSA and fall within the broad remedial scheme established for vendors' disputes regarding "any action arising from the operation or administration of the vending facility program." 20 U.S.C. § 107d-1(a) (emphasis added). A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and an RSA claim brought under any other name is still subject to the Act's mandatory exhaustion requirement.
This result is consistent with other cases in which courts have rejected "the simple 'pleading trick' of adding a section 504 [of the Rehabilitation Act] claim to a complaint alleging violations of the [Randolph-Sheppard] Act" that would allow plaintiffs "to evade the exhaustion requirements specified in the Act." New York v. U.S. Postal Serv.,
2. Waiver
Plaintiffs' second argument against dismissal is likewise unavailing. They argue that the District of Columbia "waived its right to demand that the plaintiffs exhaust remedies with an administrative *49action before the OAH" when it passed the D.C. Human Rights Act. Opp'n at 12-13. Under the DCHRA, an individual may either file an administrative complaint or a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Plaintiffs try in vain to connect the two statutory regimes by claiming that the District's Mayor exercised rulemaking authority under section § 2-1403.03(a) of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act to adopt § 218 of title 29 of the D.C. municipal regulations, which implements the RSA's administrative hearing requirements. But those regulations do not cross reference the DCHRA and in fact, the notice of final rulemaking states explicitly that the regulation was adopted pursuant to the authority set forth in section 109 of the Department on Disability Services Establishment Act of 2006,
3. Jurisdiction
Third, and finally, Plaintiffs argue that even if they have asserted claims under the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the Court should not dismiss for failure to exhaust because the Office of Administrative Hearings lacks jurisdiction over claims arising under the Act. Pls.' First "Praecipe," ECF No. 28, at 1.
IV. Conclusion
In conclusion, because Plaintiffs' claims are premised on alleged violations of the *50Randolph-Sheppard Act and the manner in which the District administers that Act, they fall within the scope of the mandatory administrative requirements of the Act. Because Plaintiffs failed to exhaust their claims, the Court will grant the District of Columbia's motion to dismiss. An Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
Although the D.C. Circuit in 1994 described the RSA's administrative exhaustion requirement as jurisdictional, see Comm. of Blind Vendors of D.C. v. District of Columbia,
The District makes too much of Plaintiffs' allegation that "[t]o date, the class members never litigated the factual and legal problems outlined in this complaint." MTD, ECF No. 19, at 17-18 (quoting SAC ¶ 16(d) ). This is not, as it would have the Court believe, a concession about a failure to exhaust. Rather, the Court interprets this statement to mean that Plaintiffs either have not had the opportunity to litigate their statutory claims in court as opposed to before the OAH, or they have not done so as a class.
Plaintiffs also advance claims based on these allegations of unauthorized or excessive deductions under theories of breach of fiduciary, SAC ¶¶ 77-81, 108-12 (Counts 10 and 16), unjust enrichment, Pls.' Opp'n at 42-43 (explaining that Counts 11 and 17, SAC ¶¶ 82-86, 113-15, erroneously used the term "constructive trust" for Plaintiffs' unjust enrichment claim), and resulting trust, SAC ¶¶ 87-89, ¶¶ 116-18 (Count 12 and 18). But as with their discrimination claims, Plaintiffs cannot simply re-label claims arising out of the manner in which the DDS-RSA administers the RSVFP to avoid the Act's mandatory exhaustion requirements.
Technically, the Rehabilitation Act requires a higher showing of causation. Compare
As explained above, the Court may consider matters subject to judicial notice without converting the District's motion to dismiss into one for summary judgment. Gustave-Schmidt,
To be clear, the Court does not hold that a blind vendor can never bring a discrimination claim without first exhausting that claim pursuant to the Randolph-Sheppard Act. Rather, the Court only concludes that here, Plaintiffs' claims are, in substance, challenges to the District's administration of the Act and therefore must be exhausted.
Although Plaintiffs moved for leave to file a surreply-which they styled as a "rejoinder"-they did not seek the Court's permission to file their first and second "Praecipes," which the Court takes as additional supplemental responses. Out of an abundance of caution, however, the Court has considered the arguments advanced in those three responses. Counsel is admonished to adhere to the Court's rules in the future.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Hazell BROOKS v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published