Florida Paraplegic Ass'n v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 30 March 1990
• Docket Number: No. 88-0718-CIV.,88-0718-CIV.
• Citation: 734 F. Supp. 997
• Parties: The FLORIDA PARAPLEGIC ASSOCIATION, a Florida not-for-profit corporation, Plaintiff, v. Bob MARTINEZ, individually and as Governor of the State of Florida; Rebecca Paul, individually and as Secretary of the Department of the Lottery of the State of Florida, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

734 F. Supp. 997

The FLORIDA PARAPLEGIC ASSOCIATION, a Florida not-for-profit corporation, Plaintiff, v. Bob MARTINEZ, individually and as Governor of the State of Florida; Rebecca Paul, individually and as Secretary of the Department of the Lottery of the State of Florida, Defendants.

No. 88-0718-CIV.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

March 30, 1990.

Wesley F. White, White & Brown, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff.

Thomas A. Bell, Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants.

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT;

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT;

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT;

FINAL JUDGMENT

JAMES LAWRENCE KING, Chief Judge.

This cause comes before the court on defendants' motion for summary judgment, plaintiff's cross-motion for partial summary judgment and plaintiff's motion to amend its complaint.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arose out of a Florida statute which, as part of the Lottery Act, mandated that all retailers selling Florida lottery tickets make their facilities accessible to the handicapped. See Fla.Stat. § 24.112(13) (1987) (repealed)¹. Subsequently, the Department of the Lottery promulgated a regulation which extended the time within which retailers had to comply with the above Florida statute. See Fla. Dep't of the Lottery Rule No. 53 ER 87-36 (January 12, 1988). This rule gave retailers an additional ninety (90) days from the execution of their contracts with the Department of the Lottery to make their facilities handicapped accessible. See id.

The plaintiff herein brought suit in state court to challenge this Department of the Lottery regulation. See Dignity for the Disabled, Inc. v. The Department of the Lottery, et al., No. 88-95 (Fla.Cir.Ct. Jan. 28, 1988) (Second Judicial Circuit, Leon County) (Final Order and Settlement Stipulation). That suit resulted in a settlement agreement between plaintiff² and the Department of the Lottery, dated January 26, 1988 and approved by the state court on January 28, 1988. See id. According to the terms of the settlement, the Department of the Lottery set forth a rule to substitute for the initial controverted one. See id. The substitute rule provided that the Department would not enter into any future contracts with retailers who had not already made their establishments handicapped-accessible, and that retailers who had applied prior to the date of the substitute rule would have ninety (90) days within which to verify their compliance. See id.

Subsequent to approval of this settlement stipulation, the Florida Legislature passed a bill on April 12, 1988 which struck the text of Florida Statutes § 24.112(13), and thereby eliminated the handicapped-accessibility requirement. As new § 24.112(13), the legislature substituted the identical handicapped-accessibility requirement³, but the reenactment was not to go into effect until October 1, 1988, thereby giving retailers until that date to make their facilities accessible. See Fla.Stat. § 24.112(13) (1988). Plaintiff then brought suit in federal district court for relief. Only Count I of Plaintiff's complaint, brought under title 42 U.S.C. § 1983, has survived defendant's motion to dismiss. (See this court's order of April 10, 1989 (Order Granting Partial Dismissal, docket number 26).)

In Count I, plaintiff advances that defendants violated its members' fourteenth amendment due process and equal protection rights under color of state law, in violation of title 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Relief sought consists of nominal damages.

II. PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND ITS COMPLAINT

Plaintiff moves the court to allow it to amend its complaint to include a claim for nominal damages. This would constitute an amendment to conform to the evidence under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(b). The motion is properly made and lies within the discretion of the trial court to grant.

Defendants respond that since plaintiff lacks standing to sue on behalf of its members, it cannot sue for nominal damages either.

Because the court finds that plaintiff has standing, and because the motion is proper, the court will allow plaintiff to amend its complaint to include a claim for nominal damages.

III. SUMMARY JUDGMENT

A. STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 governs motions for summary judgment in federal court. That rule provides that summary judgment shall issue "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The two parties' motions for summary judgment concede that no genuine issue of material fact exists,⁴ and the court may properly proceed to decide the case on the law. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2509, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

B. PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Plaintiff has moved for partial summary judgment — on the issue of liability. Defendants oppose this motion.

In its motion for partial summary judgment, plaintiff realleges its fundamental stance: one, that defendants' actions were not rationally related to a legitimate state purpose, and thus defendants violated plaintiff's members equal protection rights; two, that defendants' delayed implementation of the disputed Florida statutes section. Defendants counter plaintiff's above-outlined allegations with the same arguments that they advance in their motion for summary judgment, analyzed below. The court will analyze the propriety of summary judgment on liability and damages below.

C. DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Defendants advance two arguments for summary judgment: Plaintiff's lack of standing and title 42 U.S.C. § 1983's inapplicability to defendants because of their status.

1. Standing

The court must address whether an association has standing to raise the issue of damages to its individual members, where the association has not alleged injury to itself. Plaintiff itself does not have standing. Although plaintiff asserts that it suffered damage — and that it alleged such in its complaint —, the complaint does not state a claim for damage to the plaintiff/association itself. See Complaint, Paragraphs 14-17.⁵ Plaintiff contends that the language of the complaint delineates injury to the association itself because plaintiff was a party to the settlement which defendants allegedly violated. While the plaintiff/association could maintain that its rights were violated because of its status as a party to the stipulation⁶, the remainder of the complaint makes clear that plaintiff seeks recompense for constitutional injury to its members. See id. Because plaintiff complains on this basis, damage must be assessed as it relates to the members of the plaintiff/association.

The relevant question then is whether the plaintiff/association has standing to sue on behalf of its members. Defendants argue that, under Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975), an association cannot obtain relief in the form of damages for injuries incurred by the association's members. Warth appeared to severely restrict the circumstances under which an association, on behalf of its members, could assert standing. See id.

Further Supreme Court precedent, however, has softened the Warth test. See Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977); International Union, United Auto., Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America v. Brock, 477 U.S. 274, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986). The Supreme Court in Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977), reworded Warth's associational standing test to allow standing only when "neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit." Hunt, 432 U.S. at 343, 97 S.Ct. at 2441.

The Court's decision in International Union, United Auto., Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America v. Brock, 477 U.S. 274, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986), reaffirmed the Court's approach in Hunt. In International Union, the Court addressed the problematic prong of the Hunt/Warth test for associational standing and specifically decided that the nature of a particular claim for damage relief controls whether or not an association/plaintiff has standing to assert damage relief. Id. at 287, 106 S.Ct. at 2531. The Court determined that the damage remedy sought there involved a pure question of law, which the district court could dispose of without reference to "the individual circumstances of any aggrieved ... sic member." Id. Thus, it was not necessary for individual members of the association to participate in the lawsuit and the court allowed the association to proceed on behalf of its members.

Because in this case plaintiff now seeks nominal damages only, the court can determine the damage to members of the plaintiff in a discrete and insular manner, in accord with International Union. Plaintiff, therefore, has standing in this lawsuit. See Hunt, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977); International Union, 477 U.S. 274, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986). Defendants' motion for summary judgment on this point is denied.

2. Defendants' Status Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

a. Defendants in Their Official Capacity

Defendants assert that state officials acting in their official capacity are not "persons" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendants cite to a recent Supreme Court decision: Will v. Michigan Dep't of State Police, ___ U.S. ___, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989). The Will case controls interpretation of § 1983 in federal court suits (although it arose in state court). In addition, federal court suits against state...