Rodriguez v. California Highway Patrol

• Citation: 89 F.Supp.2d 1131
• Decision Date: 13 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. C 99 20895 JF EAI.,C 99 20895 JF EAI.
• Parties: Curtis V. RODRIGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

89 F.Supp.2d 1131

Curtis V. RODRIGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL, et al., Defendants.

No. C 99 20895 JF EAI.

United States District Court, N.D. California, San Jose Division.

March 13, 2000.

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Jon B Streeter, San Francisco, CA, Michelle Alexander, San Francisco, CA, Alan L. Schlosser, San Francisco, CA, for plaintiffs.

Bill Lockyer, San Francisco, CA, Tyler Pon, San Francisco, CA, S Michelle Inan, Oakland, CA, for defendants.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION TO DISMISS, DENYING MOTION TO SEVER PLAINTIFFS AND/OR STRIKE CLASS ACTION ALLEGATIONS AND DENYING MOTION TO STRIKE PORTIONS OF PLEADING

FOGEL, District Judge.

This case presents a broad, vigorously disputed challenge to an alleged law enforcement practice known as racial profiling. Defendants¹ have filed three motions directed at the pleadings: (1) a motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint; (2) a motion to sever plaintiffs and/or strike Plaintiffs' class action allegations; and (3) a motion to strike certain portions of the First Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs² oppose the motions. The Court has read the moving and responding papers and has considered the oral arguments of counsel presented on February 18, 2000. For the reasons set forth below, the motion to dismiss will be granted in part and denied in part, and the motion to sever plaintiffs and/or strike the class action allegations and the motion to strike portions of the First Amended Complaint will be denied.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint alleges that Defendants maintain a policy, pattern and practice of targeting African-Americans and Latinos in conducting stops, detentions, interrogations and searches of motorists. The individual plaintiffs have alleged specific incidents of racial profiling which they claim occurred on or near State Highway 152 and Interstate Highway 5 in the Pacheco Pass area of Santa Clara and Merced Counties. Both the individual and the organizational plaintiffs allege that racial profiling is an integral part of a federally funded drug interdiction program sponsored by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency known as "Operation Pipeline" as well as other drug interdiction efforts. Plaintiffs base their allegations in part upon a draft report of California's Joint Legislative Task Force on Government Oversight on September 29, 1999, which alleges the existence of racial profiling in Operation Pipeline.

II. MOTION TO DISMISS

A. Legal Standard

The issue to be decided on a motion to dismiss is not whether a plaintiff's claims have merit but rather whether the moving defendant has shown beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts entitling him or her to relief. See Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). The court's review is limited to the face of the complaint, documents referenced by the complaint and matters of which the court may take judicial notice. See Levine v. Diamanthuset, Inc., 950 F.2d 1478, 1483 (9th Cir.1991); In re Stac Elecs. Sec. Litig., 89 F.3d 1399, 1405 n. 4 (9th Cir.1996); MGIC Indem. Corp. v. Weisman, 803 F.2d 500, 504 (9th Cir.1986). Ordinarily, a complaint may be dismissed as a matter of law for only two reasons: (1) lack of a cognizable legal theory or (2) insufficient facts under a cognizable legal theory. See Robertson v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 749 F.2d 530, 533-34 (9th Cir.1984) (citing 2A J. Moore, Moore's Fed. Practice ¶ 12.08 at 2271 (2d ed.1982)). When a court considers a motion to dismiss, all allegations of the complaint are construed in the plaintiff's favor. See Sun Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Dierdorff, 825 F.2d 187, 191 (9th Cir.1987). In particular, "[c]ivil rights complaints are to be liberally construed," and need only comply with F.R.Civ.P. 8(a). Buckey v. County of Los Angeles, 968 F.2d 791, 794 (9th Cir.1992). For a motion to dismiss to be granted, it must appear to a certainty that the plaintiff would not be entitled to relief under any set of facts that could be proved. See Wool v. Tandem Computers, Inc., 818 F.2d 1433, 1439 (9th Cir.1987). Motions to dismiss generally are viewed with disfavor under this liberal standard and are rarely granted. See Gilligan v. Jamco Dev. Corp., 108 F.3d 246, 249 (9th Cir.1997).

B. NAACP's and LULAC's Standing

Both of the organizational plaintiffs — NAACP and LULAC — are nonprofit membership organizations which allege that they are suing on behalf of their members. Defendants argue that NAACP and LULAC lack standing to sue on behalf of their members under the circumstances of this case.

"[E]ven in the absence of injury to itself, an association may have standing solely as representative of its members." Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 511, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975); see, e.g., NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958); International Union, United Auto. v. Brock, 477 U.S. 274, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986). Associational standing is particularly appropriate where "the association is seeking to represent the interests which are central to the purpose of the organization" and "where the relief sought is some form of prospective remedy, such as declaratory judgment, which will inure to the benefit of the organization's membership." Peick v. Pension Benefit Guar. Corp., 724 F.2d 1247, 1259 (7th Cir.1983).

An association has standing if (1) its members would have standing to sue in their own right; (2) the interests the organization seeks to protect are relevant to the organization's purpose; and (3) neither the claim asserted nor the relief sought requires the participation of individual members of the organization in the lawsuit. See Brock, 477 U.S. at 282, 106 S.Ct. 2523; Hunt v. Washington State Apple Adver. Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977); Individuals for Responsible Gov't, Inc. v. Washoe County, 110 F.3d 699, 702 (9th Cir.1997).

Defendants do not dispute that the interests sought to be protected by NAACP and LULAC in this litigation are relevant to the purposes of these organizations, which include opposing racial discrimination against African-Americans and Latinos, respectively. In addition, Defendants also acknowledge that Plaintiffs have alleged that individual members of NAACP and LULAC have been stopped and detained by CHP and BNE officers on the basis of race.

Defendants' primary argument is that the organizational plaintiffs' allegations are too general and that more specific allegations should be made so that one may determine the actual identities of particular members of each organization who claim to have been subjected to Defendants' alleged illegal practices. However, while information about claimed injuries caused to members of NAACP and LULAC may be obtained in the course of discovery, no legal authority requires that the names and contact information of individual members be alleged in the complaint. Legal Aid Society of Hawaii v. Legal Services Corp., 145 F.3d 1017, 1030 (9th Cir.1998), cited by Defendants, is inapposite. That case considered the issue of standing in the context of a motion for summary judgment rather than a motion to dismiss; it thus involved an examination of the entire record following an opportunity for discovery rather than a bare pleading. See id. at 1030-31.

Defendants also argue that Plaintiffs' claims cannot be adjudicated without the participation of individual members of NAACP and LULAC. Defendants quite reasonably point out that proof of the existence of a policy or practice of racial profiling requires proof of more than one instance of official misconduct. However, Plaintiffs in fact have pled more than one instance of official misconduct. There is no authority for the proposition that only members of the organizational plaintiffs can serve as individual plaintiffs; at this early stage of the proceedings, it would appear to be sufficient that the individual plaintiffs are members of the racial and ethnic groups for whom the organizational plaintiffs state that they are advocates.

The Court concludes that for present purposes NAACP and LULAC have standing to sue on behalf of their members. As in Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, see id., at 1029-31, this conclusion does not preclude a determination that these organizations lack standing later in the litigation.

C. Venue

The incident of racial profiling alleged by Rodriguez occurred in Santa Clara County, which is located in the Northern District of California; the incidents alleged by Lopez and Washington occurred in Merced County, which is in the Eastern District of California. Defendants argue that the proper venue for the Lopez and the Washington incidents is the Eastern District rather than the Northern District. However, venue is proper in any district "in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred." 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) (1999). Section 1391(b)(2) does not require that a majority of the events have occurred in the district where suit is filed, nor does it require that the events in that district predominate. See Sidco Indus. Inc. v. Wimar Tahoe Corp., 768 F.Supp. 1343, 1346 (D.Or.1991) (language of § 1391(b)(2) "contemplates that there may be more than one district in which a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred, and that venue would be proper in each such district"); see also Bates v. C & S Adjusters, Inc., 980 F.2d 865, 867 (2d Cir.1992); First of Mich. Corp. v. Bramlet, 141 F.3d 260, 264 (6th Cir.1998). All that Plaintiffs need show is that a substantial part of the events giving rise to their claims occurred in the Northern District of California.

Rodriguez, a resident of Santa Clara County, allegedly was stopped in Santa Clara County, in the Northern District. Moreover, Plaintiffs claim in their class action allegations that Defendants routinely utilize racial profiling in...