LaBella Winnetka, Inc. v. Vill. of Winnetka
| Citation | 628 F.3d 937 |
| Decision Date | 29 December 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-3297,09-3297 |
| Parties | LaBELLA WINNETKA, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The VILLAGE OF WINNETKA and Douglas Williams, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
Dean A. Dickie, Attorney (argued), Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
James A. Clark, Attorney (argued), Schiff Hardin LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before POSNER, FLAUM, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
On February 28, 2007, a roof fire broke out at the Italian restaurant operated by LaBella Winnetka, Inc. in the Village of Winnetka, Illinois. The restaurant's doors have remained closed since that date. LaBella blames the Village and its manager, Douglas Williams, for preventing it from reopening the restaurant. LaBella appeals the district court's dismissal of its equal protection, substantive due process,procedural due process, and state law claims against the Village and Williams.
For the following reasons, we affirm the district court's judgment.
LaBella opened its restaurant in the Village in 1993. The restaurant was located in a space LaBella leased from a private party ("the Landlord"). The lease was extended from time to time, with the last extension running through July 31, 2008. Also in 1993, LaBella applied for and received a Retail Liquor License from the Village. Each year between 1993 and 2007, the Village sent LaBella a liquor license renewal form, and renewed LaBella's license after LaBella submitted the completed form.
In February 2007, the Landlord hired roofers to do construction work on the roof above LaBella's restaurant. The Village and Williams (collectively "defendants") did not require the Landlord to obtain a building permit to perform the work. On February 28, 2007, LaBella informed defendants that the roofing contractor was using flammable materials to repair the roof, which might cause damage to the roof or building. Neither the Village nor Williams responded to LaBella's complaint. Later that day, the roof work caused a fire that damaged the roof over LaBella's main dining room, forcing LaBella to close. LaBella's kitchen, bar, and outdoor patio sustained no damaged from the fire.
LaBella applied for permits to repair the fire damage to its restaurant's interior, but defendants refused to issue any permits until the Landlord replaced the roof. Defendants also refused to allow LaBella to partition off the portion of the restaurant in need of repair and to reopen in the undamaged bar and outdoor patio areas.
Another restaurant—Corner Cooks—operated out of the same building as LaBella. Corner Cooks was permitted by defendants to reopen immediately after the fire. While LaBella was closed, defendants approved permits and designs for Corner Cooks to open Jerry's Restaurant in portions of the building that were still leased to LaBella, including the bar area in which defendants had refused to allow LaBella to reopen. LaBella contends that Corner Cooks and Jerry's Restaurant received special treatment because they were what Village employees referred to as "Friends of Doug," meaning businesses favored by Village Manager Williams. LaBella was not a Friend of Doug.
Another Friend of Doug is O'Neil's Restaurant. Between March 18, 2008 and June 16, 2009, defendants allowed O'Neil's Restaurant to remain open for business while a portion of its restaurant was partitioned-off for building repairs.
As noted above, LaBella held a Retail Liquor License issued by the Village; that license was set to expire on March 31, 2008. LaBella alleged that the Village and Williams "terminate[d]" LaBella's liquor license by not sending the annual renewal form to LaBella, as they routinely had done the previous fourteen years. Amended Cmplt. at ¶ 51B. The Village and Williams also allegedly approved "the issuance of a Class A-1 liquor license to Corner Cooks and Jerry's Restaurant at the same address as LaBella, and after doing so, ... cancelled LaBella's Retail Liquor License—without cause, notice or a hearing." Id.
LaBella filed suit against the Village and Williams on November 26, 2007. In an amended complaint filed on April 3, 2008, LaBella asserted four claims against defendants: (1) a claim for violation of its equal protection rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment;(2) a claim for violation of its substantive due process rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment for deprivation of its property interest in its lease and restaurant business; (3) a claim for violation of its due process rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment for deprivation of its food and liquor licenses; and (4) a claim for intentional interference with its lease and its prospective business expectancy.
Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint, which the district court granted on March 18, 2009. LaBella filed a Rule 59(e) motion to alter or amend the judgment, which the district court denied. This timely appeal followed.
We review the district court's grant of defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss de novo, construing the amended complaint in the light most favorable to LaBella, accepting as true all well-pleaded facts alleged, and drawing all possible inferences in its favor. Justice v. Town of Cicero, 577 F.3d 768, 771 (7th Cir.2009).1
Count I of the amended complaint asserts a class-of-one equal protection claim, alleging that defendants discriminated against LaBella, while favoring "Friends of Doug" restaurants, by selectively enforcing Village ordinances and building codes. In support of that claim, LaBella points to defendants' decision to allow Corner Cooks to reopen immediately, while forcing LaBella to remain closed. LaBella also notes that defendants allowed Corner Cooks and Jerry's Restaurant to operate out of LaBella's undamaged bar area after the fire, instead of authorizing LaBella to do so. Finally, LaBella relies on defendants' refusal to let LaBella partition off portions of its restaurant while it repaired the damage from the fire, as it later permitted O'Neil's Restaurant to do while undergoing renovations.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that "no State shall ... deny to any persons within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Traditionally, the Equal Protection Clause is understood as protecting members of vulnerable groups from unequal treatment attributable to the state. See Bell v. Duperrault, 367 F.3d 703, 707 (7th Cir.2004). But it also proscribes state action that irrationally singles out and targets an individual for discriminatory treatment as a so-called "class-of-one." Reget v. City of La Crosse, 595 F.3d 691, 695 (7th Cir.2010); see also Vill. of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562, 564, 120 S.Ct. 1073, 145 L.Ed.2d 1060 (2000).
All equal protection claims, regardless of the size of the disadvantaged class, are based on the principle that, under "like circumstances and conditions," people must be treated alike, unless there is a rational reason for treating them differently. See Engquist v. Oregon Dep't of Agric., 553 U.S. 591, 601-02, 128 S.Ct. 2146, 170 L.Ed.2d 975 (2008) (quotingHayes v. Missouri, 120 U.S. 68, 71-72, 7 S.Ct. 350, 30 L.Ed. 578 (1887)). Thus, a plaintiff states a class-of-one equal protection claim by alleging that he "has been intentionally treated differently from others similarly situated and that there is no rational basis for the difference in treatment." Olech, 528 U.S. at 564, 120 S.Ct. 1073. Because we conclude that LaBella's claim does not satisfy the first element of that inquiry, we affirm the district court's dismissal.
To be considered "similarly situated," a plaintiff and his comparators (those alleged to have been treated more favorably) must be identical or directly comparable in all material respects. Reget, 595 F.3d at 695. The "similarly situated" analysis is not a "precise formula," but we have stated repeatedly that what is "clear [is] that similarly situated individuals must be very similar indeed." McDonald v. Vill. of Winnetka, 371 F.3d 992, 1002 (7th Cir.2004). Whether a comparator is similarly situated is usually a question for the fact-finder. Id. Here, however, dismissal at the pleading stage was appropriate because LaBella failed to allege facts tending to show that it was similarly situated to any of the comparators. See Stachowski v. Town of Cicero, 425 F.3d 1075, 1078 (7th Cir.2005) (). Rather, the pleadings show that LaBella and the Friends of Doug restaurants were different in certain material respects.
We begin with the allegations regarding O'Neil's Restaurant. The amended complaint alleges that LaBella needed to undergo repairs for "major [fire] damage to the roof," while O'Neil's Restaurant underwent unspecified renovations. There is no allegation that the renovations to O'Neil's Restaurant were comparable to the replacement of a fire-damaged roof. The extent of the work to be done behind a partition certainly is material to the determination of whether such a partition is feasible. Therefore, LaBella failed to allege that it was similarly situated to O'Neil's Restaurant.
With respect to Corner Cooks and Jerry's Restaurant, the pleadings demonstrate that neither of those restaurants was prima facie identical to LaBella in all material respects.2 The amended complaint alleges that Corner Cooks and LaBella faced "the same risks" after the fire because the two were located immediately adjacent to one another on the same floor of the same building. That allegation may have been sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. However, in its briefing here and before the district court, LaBella made clear that the roof over the...
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