FKFJ, Inc. v. Vill. of Worth, No. 18 C 2828
| Decision Date | 11 June 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 18 C 2828 |
| Parties | FKFJ, INC., International Realty Investments LLC, Isam Samara, and Muwafak S. Rizek, Plaintiffs, v. VILLAGE OF WORTH, Mary Werner, Mark Micetich, Village of Worth Police Officer #207, #208, #210, #213, #223, #224, #227, #234, and Unknown Village of Worth Police Officers, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
Tia L. Haywood, Haywood Monte Law Offices, Brendan Shiller, Shiller Preyar Law Offices, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs.
John William Patton, Jr., David F. Ryan, Thomas Calvin Flowers, Charles R. Vogt, Ronak Joshi, Patton & Ryan, LLC, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.
Plaintiffs, Isam Samara, Muwafak Risek, and their business entity, FKFJ, Inc. ("FKFJ"),1 bring this suit against the Village of Worth, its president Mary Werner, and its chief of police Mark Micetich,2 asserting various claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law, all stemming from certain acts of alleged harassment in retaliation for Samara and Rizek's support for Werner's political opponent. Defendants have moved for summary judgment. For the following reasons, the Court grants the motion for summary judgment as to plaintiffs’ federal § 1983 claims and declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims.
Plaintiff Isam Samara leased property at 7011 West 111th Street in Worth, Illinois, from a business entity controlled by his brother, Husam. Isam operated a restaurant on the premises, Saraya Café, beginning in 2012. In 2016, Samara formed FKFJ with his son-in-law, Muwafak Rizek, for the purpose of remodeling the premises at 7011 West 111th and operating a new restaurant and banquet hall there, to be known as Saraya Restaurant & Banquet ("Saraya Restaurant"). Additionally, Isam had acquired a lease to a nearby building at 7013 West 111th Street, on which he intended for FKFJ to operate a hookah lounge known as Zaman Café.
Isam and Rizek remodeled the 7011 West 111th premises during the spring of 2016, and the new restaurant was open by July 2016. A problem for the new restaurant was that parking was scarce in the area. The Village had agreed to let FKFJ set up a valet stand at the 7011 property and park its customers’ cars in a nearby Metra parking lot, but Isam identified another solution. He worked out an agreement with International Realty, the owner of the 7013 property, to allow customers to park behind a house at 7015 West 111th Street, which International Realty also owned. Isam and International Realty also agreed to work together to demolish the 7015 building in October 2016 and put a parking lot on the property, which FKFJ would lease from International Realty.
In September of 2016, Randy Keller approached Isam and Rizek about supporting his campaign for president of the Village of Worth in the upcoming April 2017 election. Isam and Rizek agreed to support him and hosted campaign events for him at Saraya Restaurant.
In October 2016, FKFJ applied for a demolition permit. According to Isam, he had previously had a good relationship with the Village President, defendant Mary Werner,3 but with respect to the demolition permit, it seemed to Isam that she "went out of her way to make it difficult." ( She "approached Cook County about the water lines and something," which forced Isam to go "downtown" to "pay some kind of deposit or something." (Id. at 17-24.) Isam and Werner blamed "waiting for Cook County" (id. at 45:9-12), which Isam found suspicious. "[F]rom [Isam's] perspective ... she made it difficult," but Isam admitted that he did not recall the details exactly. (Id. at 44:1-13).
Werner seemed to recall the details with more clarity. At her deposition, she recounted that Rizek and Lori Zetterberg, an International Realty representative, first came to speak to her about getting a demolition permit in June 2016. Werner explained to them that, if they wanted to put a parking lot on the 7015 West 111th Street property, the first step was to acquire a demolition permit from Cook County (not the Village of Worth). Once they obtained that demolition permit, Werner explained, then they would need to apply for a special use permit before the Real Estate Development Board ("REDB") of the Village of Worth, because the property at 7015 West 111th Street was residentially zoned. The REDB would consider whether to recommend approval to the ultimate decisionmaker, the Village Board of Trustees.
Werner testified that, over the succeeding months, Rizek would frequently come back to the Worth Village Hall to inquire about the demolition permit, and Werner or village staff would have to reiterate that he needed to acquire a demolition permit before they could take steps toward the special use permit. Additionally, the demolition would require water and sewer connections to be shut off—but the village's superintendent of public works and building commissioner determined that the relevant water and sewer lines run under 111th Street in space that is controlled by the Illinois Department of Transportation ("IDOT"), so FKFJ and International Realty would have to get a separate permit from IDOT. By August or September of 2016, they had still not obtained the necessary permits, but Rizek kept returning to village hall to ask for permission to begin the project anyway, and village staff kept reiterating that he needed to obtain the proper permits first.
Plaintiffs eventually obtained the proper demolition permits, and the house at 7015 West 111th Street was torn down in March 2017. Soon afterward, FKFJ filled the lot with gravel, which did not comply with Worth's ordinance on parking lot construction. Plaintiffs were warned by village staff that the gravel parking lot did not comply with the ordinance and patrons could not legally park there until the parking lot was properly paved. Additionally, plaintiffs had not yet secured the necessary special use permit. Plaintiffs initially put up caution tape or other obstacles to prevent anyone from parking in the lot during this time, but as time passed, visitors began to park in the lot anyway.
In April 2017, Werner won reelection as Worth Village President, defeating Randy Keller.
Plaintiffs submitted their special use permit application in April 2017, but the check for the fees bounced. Similarly, the check that Rizek wrote to Schroeder Materials for the gravel had bounced. When Rizek did not pay for the gravel even after being informed that the check had bounced, a representative of Schroeder Materials contacted the police. On May 17, 2017, a Worth police officer, Officer Ferchau, went to speak to the owner, Richard Schoeder, who informed him that Schroeder Materials had attempted to deposit Rizek's check twice, on March 31, 2017, and April 3, 2017, but the check was returned for insufficient funds both times. Further, Rizek had ignored Schroeder Materials’ initial attempts to contact him and had failed to show up for two appointments to make payment. Officer Ferchau then went to Saraya Restaurant to speak with Rizek. According to Officer Ferchau, Rizek stated that he knew that the account that the check was drawn on did not have sufficient funds,4 he had heard from Schroeder Materials employees, and he would go to Schoeder Materials on May 22, 2017, to pay the outstanding balance. Officer Ferchau relayed that information to one of the Schroeder Materials employees he had spoken with and told her to notify the police if Rizek did not make payment on the 22nd. Rizek did not show up at Schroeder Materials on May 22, and Mr. Schroeder called the police again. He was told to come to the police station with the documentation supporting his complaint, and on May 23, 2017, Officer Luburich went to Saraya Restaurant to arrest Rizek for deceptive practices under 720 ILCS 5/17-1(B). Luburich placed Rizek in handcuffs, but he released him moments later because Rizek offered to make the outstanding payment to Schroeder Materials by phone on the spot.5 Mr. Schroeder agreed to accept payment by phone and drop the matter from there.
In May 2017, plaintiffs submitted another check for the special use permit application fees, and this one cleared. Based on her knowledge of the process, Werner helped plaintiffs fill out parts of the application that they needed help with, but the application remained incomplete because the plaintiffs had not included a site plan. In June or July, plaintiffs submitted a site plan, and the matter came before the REDB. Initially, the REDB had several concerns, including the depth of the parking spaces, whether rainwater would run off across the sidewalk on 111th Street, and whether there was sufficient space for a motorist to make a three-point turn. The REDB voted to continue the meeting, but it recommended approval at the following meeting. The special use permit was ultimately approved by the Village Board in November 2017, although construction did not immediately begin.
Meanwhile, Worth police officers began to issue parking tickets for cars parked in the 7015 gravel lot. Mark Micetich, Worth's chief of police, learned during the May 2017 village board meeting that the new parking lot had not received the proper permits, and he issued a memorandum instructing police officers that "there is no parking" in that lot. (See Pls.’ LR 56.1 Resp. Ex. M, May 30, 2017 Micetich Mem., ECF No. 151-13 at 1.) According to the memorandum, officers were to issue tickets using the information of the vehicles found in the lot, but in the name of "Saraya," and the tickets were to be "hand delivered to a manager at Saraya's." (Id. ) According to Micetich, he instructed his officers to issue the tickets to Saraya Restaurant because he had learned that some officers had previously written tickets...
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