Hall v. Burger King Corp.

• Decision Date: 13 November 1995
• Docket Number: Civil A. No. 89-0260-Civ-Kehoe.
• Citation: 912 F. Supp. 1509
• Parties: Carole HALL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BURGER KING CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

912 F. Supp. 1509

Carole HALL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BURGER KING CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civil A. No. 89-0260-Civ-Kehoe.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

November 13, 1995.

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Robert Zarco, Zarco & Associates, P.A., Miami, FL and Harold Brown, Law Offices of Harold Brown, Boston, MA, for plaintiffs.

Stephen R. Lang, Howard S. Wolfson, Whitman, Breed, Abbott & Morgan, New York City, and Francisco R. Angones, Angones Hunter McClure Lynch & Williams, P.A., Miami, FL, for defendant.

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

KEHOE, Senior District Judge.

This cause came before the Court on defendant-counterclaim plaintiff Burger King Corporation's ("BKC") Motions for Summary Judgment With Respect to the Claims of plaintiffs Idrees Agad and Mohammad Iqbal Balagamwala, Jorge, Jaime and Manuel Triana, Carole Hall and Samuel Lee Price. Oral argument was held on BKC's Motions on April 15, 1994.¹ At that time, plaintiffs argued that BKC's Motions were premature and requested additional time to take discovery. Notwithstanding that this action had already been pending for almost six (6) years, this Court reserved ruling on the Motions and granted plaintiffs an additional ninety (90) days in which to take discovery and supplement the record. Thereafter, on April 10, 1995, this Court heard further argument on BKC's Motions. For the reasons set forth below, BKC's Motions for Summary Judgment are GRANTED.

A. Procedural History

1. This action was originally filed by Carole Hall and eleven (11) other plaintiffs in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on or about October 17, 1988. The Trianas, who were not parties to the original complaint, were added when the plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint on or about December 2, 1988. By Order of January 4, 1989, the action was transferred to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Agad and Balagamwala and Price were added as parties when, on or about February 20, 1989, the plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint.

2. The original plaintiffs were twenty-four (24) past and present franchisees of BKC. They commenced this action on behalf of themselves and a purported class of Black, Hispanic and Asian-Indian Americans who were or are franchisees of BKC. The gravamen of the plaintiffs' complaint was that BKC allegedly discriminated against Black, Hispanic and Asian-Indian American franchisees as a class and, further, that BKC conspired with its white franchisees to allocate markets for the sale of Burger King® franchises. Based upon these and other allegations, the plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint asserted claims for (i) violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1982; (ii) deceit; (iii) intentional interference with contractual relations; and (iv) violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1.

3. By Memorandum Order dated October 26, 1992, this Court denied the plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification. See Hall v. Burger King Corp., 1992-2 Trade Cas. (CCH) ¶ 70,042, 1992 WL 372354 (S.D.Fla. 1992). Following the Court's decision, most of the plaintiffs either discontinued or abandoned their individual claims against BKC. Only the claims of seven (7) of the original twenty-four (24) plaintiffs—namely Idrees Agad and Mohammad Balagamwala, Jaime, Manuel and Jorge Triana, Carole Hall and Samuel Lee Price—remain pending.

B. The Parties

4. BKC is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Florida, with its principal place of business in Miami, Florida. BKC is engaged in the business of operating a national and worldwide system of company-owned and franchised Burger King® restaurants. Founded over thirty (30) years ago, BKC now has more than 7,000 restaurants worldwide, over 85% of which are franchised restaurants.

5. Idrees Agad and Mohammad Iqbal Balagamwala are Pakistani franchisees of BKC. They are citizens of the United States and residents of the State of Georgia. Agad and Balagamwala have, at various times over the past fifteen (15) years, owned and operated nine (9) Burger King® restaurants in or around Atlanta, Georgia.²

6. The Trianas are Hispanic franchisees of BKC. Manuel and Jaime Triana are citizens of the United States and residents of the State of Illinois. Jorge Triana is a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Florida.³ The Trianas currently own and operate two (2) Burger King® restaurants (Restaurant Nos. 1136 and 1398) in Chicago, Illinois. They formerly operated a third restaurant in Chicago (Burger King® Restaurant No. 147).

7. Carole Hall is a former African-American franchisee of BKC. She is a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Michigan. Hall ceased being a Burger King® franchisee when, in August of 1990, BKC terminated her franchise and lease agreements at Burger King® Restaurant No. 1813 for non-payment of royalties, advertising contributions and rent. See Burger King Corp. v. Hall, 770 F.Supp. 633 (S.D.Fla. 1991).

8. Samuel Lee Price is a former franchisee of BKC. A citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Michigan, Price previously owned two (2) Burger King® Restaurants in Michigan. Price left the Burger King® system in June of 1978 when BKC purchased his Burger King® restaurant in Flint, Michigan.

C. BKC's Motions for Summary Judgment

9. In October of 1993, BKC filed Motions for Summary Judgment seeking the dismissal of the claims asserted by Agad and Balagamwala, the Trianas and Hall. Subsequently, in December of 1994, BKC filed a Motion for Summary Judgment seeking the dismissal of the claims asserted by Price. BKC sought the dismissal the of the plaintiffs' claims on grounds that they were barred by various mutual general releases the parties had entered into, including several releases the plaintiffs had executed shortly before commencing this action. BKC also argued that the claims were time-barred and failed to state claims for relief. This Court granted BKC's request for oral argument and scheduled a specially-set hearing for April 15, 1994.

10. On April 12, 1994, three (3) days before the scheduled hearing date on BKC's Motion, plaintiffs sought leave to file a proposed third amended complaint, captioned First Amended Complaint After Denial Of Class Certification ("Cplt.").⁴ By Order dated April 26, 1994, this Court granted plaintiffs' Motion for Leave to File their Amended Complaint, but solely to the extent said amended complaint was consistent with their counsel's representations to this Court at the April 15, 1994 hearing regarding the amended pleading. One of those representations was that if BKC was correct with regard to the enforceability of the general releases at issue and the statutes of limitations, the additional facts and/or new causes of action set forth in plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint After Denial of Class Certification were "irrelevant" and, as such, would be subject to dismissal on the same grounds.⁵

11. Pursuant to this Court's Order dated April 26, 1994, and at plaintiffs' counsel's urging, this Court reserved ruling on BKC's Motions for Summary Judgment. According to plaintiffs' counsel, more discovery was needed with respect to BKC's Motions and, as a result, the Motions were premature. This action had been pending for six (6) years and the parties had thus been afforded more than ample time in which to conduct discovery. Nonetheless, in the exercise of an abundance of caution, this Court afforded plaintiffs an additional ninety (90) days in which to conduct discovery and supplement the record.⁶ Further argument on BKC's Motions was held before this Court on April 10, 1995.

D. The Standards for Summary Judgment

12. The standards governing the entry of summary judgment are clearly set forth in this Circuit. "Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Beal v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 20 F.3d 454, 458 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 675, 130 L.Ed.2d 607 (1994); see Real Estate Fin. v. Resolution Trust Corp., 950 F.2d 1540, 1543 (11th Cir.1992). The Supreme Court has held that this standard is met if the moving party demonstrates that there is "an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

13. Although reasonable inferences to be drawn from the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, "`once a moving party has sufficiently supported its motion for summary judgment, the non-moving party must come forward with significant, probative evidence demonstrating the existence of a triable issue of fact.'" Irby v. Bittick, 44 F.3d 949, 953 (11th Cir. 1995) (quoting Chanel, Inc. v. Italian Activewear, Inc., 931 F.2d 1472, 1477 (11th Cir. 1991)). "The non-moving party cannot rely solely on its pleadings, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); it `must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.'" Irby v. Bittick, supra, 44 F.3d at 953 (quoting Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)) (emphasis omitted). "This effectuates the purpose of summary judgment which `is to pierce the pleadings and to assess the proof in order to see whether there is a genuine need for trial.'" Resolution Trust Corp. v. Dunmar Corp., 43 F.3d 587, 592 (11th Cir. 1995) (quoting Wouters v. Martin County, 9 F.3d 924, 928 (11th Cir.1993)) (quoting Matsushita, supra, 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. at 1356), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 65, 130 L.Ed.2d 21 (1994)). Accordingly, "summary judgment is properly regarded not as a disfavored procedural...