Priddle v. Dean Malanis, & Great Lakes Serv. Ii, Inc.
| Decision Date | 12 January 2016 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 12-cv-5831,Case No. 12-cv-5833 |
| Parties | SOMA GETTY PRIDDLE, Plaintiff, v. DEAN MALANIS, and GREAT LAKES SERVICE II, INC., Defendants. SOMA GETTY PRIDDLE, Plaintiff, v. DARWIN ASSET MANAGEMENT; THOMAS DRIVE PARTNERSHIP; and owner of record of 705-715 THOMAS DRIVE, BENSENVILLE, ILLINOIS, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff, Soma Getty Priddle ("Priddle"), filed her two Complaints against Defendants on July 24, 2012, pro se. On February 6, 2013, the Honorable John Nordberg consolidated the two cases. Judge Norberg then dismissed both Complaints without prejudice. The cases were transferred to this Court on April 18, 2014; and Plaintiff's Amended Complaints were dismissed without prejudice on June 26, 2014. Plaintiff filed Second Amended Complaints on July 17, 2014, which were dismissed without prejudice on February 4, 2015.
Plaintiff filed two Third Amended Complaints on February 25, 2015. The first, against Dean Malanis ("Malanis") and Great Lakes Service II, Inc. ("Great Lakes") (collectively, the "Malanis defendants"), alleges one count of "Violation of Illinois Tow Law," one count of violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, 815 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 505/1 et seq., conversion, and replevin. The second, against Defendant Darwin Asset Management ("Darwin"), Thomas Drive Partnership, and the owner of record of 705-715 Thomas Drive, Bensenville, Illinois, (collectively, the "Darwin defendants"), alleges one count of conspiracy to violate Illinois tow law and one count of premises liability. Defendants filed a Joint Motion to Strike and Dismiss both Third Amended Complaints. (12-cv-5831, Dkt. 171.) For the reasons discussed below, Plaintiff's Third Amended Complaint against the Darwin defendants, (12-cv-5833, Dkt. 88), is dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff's Third Amended Complaint against the Malanis defendants, (12-cv-5831, Dkt. 158), is referred to the magistrate for a final jurisdictional hearing.
The following is taken from the Complaints, which are assumed to be true for the purposes of a motion to dismiss. Reger Dev., LLC v. Nat'l City Bank, 592 F.3d 759, 763 (7th Cir. 2010).
Plaintiff lives in Norwalk, Wisconsin, but works as an airline pilot at O'Hare Airport. (12-cv-5831, Dkt. 158, ¶¶ 1, 9.) Defendants reside or are incorporated in Illinois. (Id. ¶¶ 2-4) Plaintiff was driving to work at O'Hare Airport at approximately 5:30 a.m. on July 24, 2010. (Id. at ¶ 10.) That morning there were heavy rains and areas of localized flash flooding. (Id. at ¶ 11.) Due to a police barricade on Thomas Drive, Plaintiff was directed into a parking lot owned by the Darwin defendants in order to turn around. (Id. at ¶ 19.) While stopped in the parking lot, a surge of water swept Plaintiff's vehicle into a drainage canal. (Id. at ¶ 21.) Theitems in Plaintiff's vehicle, a Dodge Ram truck, included: farm equipment, emergency equipment, personal supplies, pet supplies, law school materials, and materials containing Security Sensitive Information ("SSI"). (Id. at ¶¶ 24, 26-27). Plaintiff escaped the vehicle by breaking through a metal safety barrier and a rear sliding window but could still see her belongings in the vehicle after it was carried some distance. (Id. at ¶¶ 28, 29.) Plaintiff attempted to retrieve her belongings that day, but she was informed the water was still too dangerous and told to return after at least twenty-four hours. (Id. at ¶¶ 31-32.)
Plaintiff came back to retrieve her vehicle the next day, but she could not find it and reported the truck as missing. (Id. at ¶¶ 35, 37.) The Bensenville Police Department located Plaintiff's vehicle in the possession of the Malanis defendants. (Id. at ¶ 37.) Malanis refused to return Plaintiff's truck that day. (Id. at ¶¶ 38-39.) On July 26, 2014, Plaintiff went to Malanis's lot and saw that most of the contents within the vehicle were missing. (Id. at ¶ 45.) Malanis denied any knowledge of how the items in the truck went missing. (Id. at ¶¶ 47-49.) Malanis then asked Plaintiff for $2,400.00 to release her vehicle but, after Plaintiff had paid, refused to release the vehicle until the next day. (Id. at ¶¶ 50, 53-54, 56.) Malanis finally released Plaintiff's vehicle on July 27, 2014, after demanding an additional $150.00 in cash. (Id. at ¶ 60.)
When asked by Bensenville Police who authorized the tow of Priddle's vehicle, Malanis initially stated that he could not remember. (Id. at ¶ 61.) After further investigation, Malanis told police that he was authorized by a person named "George" at an address near the final location of Plaintiff's vehicle. (Id. at ¶ 62.) But the address did not correspond to a building, and no one named "George" was located at the nearby building. (Id.)
"A document filed pro se is to be liberally construed, and a pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers." Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (quotations and citations omitted).1
Federal district courts have original jurisdiction of civil cases where the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00 and is between citizens of two different states. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1). The party asserting federal jurisdiction has the burden of proving jurisdiction is proper. Travelers Prop. Cas. v. Good, 689 F.3d 714, 722 (7th Cir. 2012) (citing McNutt v. Gen. Motors Acceptance Corp., 289 U.S. 178, 189 (1936)). Citizenship and the amount in controversy must be shown by a preponderance of the evidence. Lewis v. Weiss, 631 F.Supp.2d 1063, 1065 (N.D. Ill. 2009) (citing Meridian Ins. Sec. Co. v. Sadowski, 441 F.3d 536, 543 (7th Cir. 2006)).
When a party moves to dismiss based on lack of subject-matter jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), the district court must accept all well-pleaded facts within the complaint as true but may also consider evidence outside of the pleadings to ensure jurisdiction is proper. Evers v. Astrue, 536 F.3d 651, 656-57 (7th Cir. 2008) (citing St. John's United Church of Christ v. City of Chicago, 502 F.3d 616, 625 (7th Cir. 2007)). When the amount in controversy is challenged, a plaintiff is required to support her jurisdictional assertion with competent proof. McMillan v. Sheraton Chi. Hotel & Towers, 567 F.3d 839, 844 (7th Cir. 2009) (quotations andcitations omitted). Such proof requires more than "point[ing] to the theoretical availability of certain categories of proof." Id. (citations omitted).
When analyzing a complaint under 12(b)(6), well-pleaded facts in the complaint are taken as true, "but legal conclusions and conclusory allegations merely reciting the elements of the claim are not entitled to this presumption of truth." McCauley v. City of Chicago, 671 F.3d 611, 616 (7th Cir. 2011) (citing Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 681 (2009)). A plaintiff must provide some specific facts to support the legal claims asserted in the complaint. Id. "The degree of specificity required is not easily quantified, but 'the plaintiff must give enough details about the subject-matter of the case to present a story that holds together.'" Id. (quoting Swanson v. Citibank, N.A., 614 F.3d 400, 404 (7th Cir. 2010)).
As set out above, both Complaints have been the subject of several amendments based on jurisdictional issues. The Honorable John A. Nordberg dismissed the original Complaints for lack of jurisdiction because Plaintiff "fail[ed] to provide a plausible factual explanation for [her] damages." (12-cv-5831, Dkt. 59 at 6.) Plaintiff was allowed to file First Amended Complaints, along with "supporting memorandum explaining why she believes she has met her jurisdictional burden." (Id. at 7.) Plaintiff timely filed First Amended Complaints, but those too were dismissed for failing to provide competent proof necessary to assert proper jurisdiction. (12-cv-5831, Dkt. 126 at 5.) Following transfer from Judge Nordberg, this Court held it unlikely that competent proof exists to justify the hourly rate that Plaintiff uses as the basis for damages based on "rebuilding" her life to establish the jurisdictional required amount in controversy. (Id. at 7.)Plaintiff then filed two Second Amended Complaints and a document titled "Plaintiff's Proof of Damages: Explanation & Notes." Those Second Amended Complaints were dismissed without prejudice. Plaintiff then filed the Third Amended Complaints at issue, which were referred to the magistrate judge for a jurisdictional hearing.2 The magistrate judge found that the parties were diverse and that Plaintiff had proven, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 as to Malanis and Great Lakes. See (Trans. 6/2/15, p. 8:16-23) ()
Defendants then filed a Joint Motion to Strike and Dismiss Plaintiff's Third Amended Complaints, arguing that Plaintiff has not met the damages threshold for diversity jurisdiction. Plaintiff alleges that the Darwin defendants are jointly responsible for the damages alleged against Malanis, as well as total additional expenses of $6,959.82. (12-cv-5833, Dkt. 88, ¶¶ 120-21, 140.) Plaintiff argues that the Darwin defendants are jointly liable with the Malanis defendants because they aided and abetted the Malanis defendants.3
Defendants challenge the sufficiency of the required jurisdiction amount based on Plaintiff's theory of the Defendants' joint and several liability. The Illinois Tow Law provides that it is "unlawful for any person to aid or abet in any violation of this Chapter." 625 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/18a-305. "Under Illinois law, to state a claim for aiding and abetting, one must allege (1) the party whom the defendant aids performed a wrongful act...
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