Schor v. Daley

• Decision Date: 30 June 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07 C 7119.,07 C 7119.
• Citation: 563 F.Supp.2d 893
• Parties: Gayle SCHOR, Kristine Mulcahy Angela Shue, Individually and On Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. Richard DALEY, Mayor, Officer Ramon Solidum, Unknown Officers, and the City of Chicago, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

563 F.Supp.2d 893

Gayle SCHOR, Kristine Mulcahy Angela Shue, Individually and On Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. Richard DALEY, Mayor, Officer Ramon Solidum, Unknown Officers, and the City of Chicago, Defendants.

No. 07 C 7119.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

June 30, 2008.

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Blake Wolfe Horwitz, Horwitz, Richardson & Baker, LLC, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs.

Rebecca Alfert, William Macy Aguiar, City of Chicago, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

RUBEN CASTILLO, District Judge.

Gayle Schor ("Schor"), Kristine Mulcahy ("Mulcahy"), and Angela Shue ("Shue"), on behalf of themselves and a purported class of motor vehicle operators within the City of Chicago (the "City") who were ticketed for using a wireless telephone without a "hands-free" device (collectively, "Plaintiffs"), filed this suit against Mayor Richard Daley ("Mayor Daley"), Officer Ramon Solidum ("Solidum"), Unknown Officers ("Officers"), and the City of Chicago (the "City") (collectively, "Defendants"). Plaintiffs were ticketed pursuant to Chicago municipal ordinance 9-40-260 ("Ordinance"), which Plaintiffs claim violates state and federal law. (R. 15, Am.Compl.)

RELEVANT FACTS

The Chicago City Council passed the Ordinance on May 11, 2005, and it took effect on July 8, 2005. (R. 15, Am. Compl.¶¶ 9-10.) The Ordinance prohibits the use of a mobile telephone without the use of a "hands free" device while operating a motor vehicle. (Id. ¶ 12.)

As of September 2007, over 25,000 citations were issued for violations of the Ordinance, resulting in almost $2 million of City revenue. (Id. ¶ 27.) Officer Solidum issued over 750 citations, representing more than three percent of the total citations issued. (Id. ¶ 28.)

Between March 2006 and November 2007, Schor, Mulcahy, and Shue were independently operating motor vehicles in the City while using mobile telephones without "hands free" devices, when they were stopped and ticketed for violations of the Ordinance. (Id. ¶¶ 44-46, 50-52, 56-58.) Upon appearing in Court, Schor's and Shue's traffic tickets were dismissed. (Id. ¶¶ 48, 60.) Mulcahy paid the $75 fine attributable to the traffic citation. (Id. ¶ 54.)

In the Amended Complaint ("Complaint"), Plaintiffs allege: (1) a Section 1983 claim for false arrest; (2) false arrest under Illinois law, (3) malicious prosecution under Illinois law; (4) a Section 1983 claim against Mayer Daley for allowing the City to maintain a widespread policy of permitting police officers to "falsely arrest" citizens under the Ordinance; (5) a "Monell" claim; (6) a claim for compensation from the City for any judgment obtained against the Defendant Officers and/or Mayor Daley; (7) a claim against the City based on respondeat superior; (8) a Section 1983 claim for violation of the Equal Protection clause; and (9) a claim for declaratory and injunctive relief.

Currently before the Court is Defendants' joint motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (R. 17, Mot. To Dismiss.) For the following reasons, the motion is granted.

LEGAL STANDARD

In a ruling on a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court accepts all well-pleaded facts in the complaint as true, and draws all reasonable inferences from those facts in the plaintiffs favor. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6); Tamayo v. Blagojevich, 526 F.3d 1074 (7th Cir.2008). To state a claim, the complaint need only contain a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). To satisfy this standard, the allegations in the complaint must (1) describe the claim in sufficient detail to give the defendant "fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests;" and (2) "plausibly suggest that the plaintiff has a right to relief, raising that possibility above a `speculative level;'" E.E.O.C. v. Concentra Health Servs., Inc., 496 F.3d 773, 776 (7th Cir.2007) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

ANALYSIS

I. False Arrest

In Counts I and II of the Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that they were falsely arrested pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Illinois state law because the Defendant police officers ticketed them without probable cause to believe that they had violated any law. (R. 15, Am.Compl.¶¶ 66, 69.) Defendants argue that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim for false arrest because: (1) Plaintiffs cannot show that they were, in fact, arrested; and (2) Plaintiffs cannot show that the police officers lacked probable cause to stop them and issue traffic citations. (R. 18, Mem. in Supp. of Mot. to Dismiss at 3-4.)

A. False Arrest under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

In general, a routine traffic stop does not constitute an arrest. See United States v. Burns, 37 F.3d 276, 280 (7th Cir.1994). Plaintiffs do not claim that the traffic tickets doled out constituted anything more than a routine traffic stop, and accordingly, Plaintiffs' "false arrest" claims should fail.

Reading the Complaint as a whole, however, Plaintiffs appear to be trying to state a more general claim, that the traffic stops at issue violated Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. "The law is settled that in Fourth Amendment terms a traffic stop entails a seizure of the driver even though the purpose of the stop is limited and the resulting detention quite brief." Brendlin v. California, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2400, 2406, 168 L.Ed.2d 132 (2007) (internal citations omitted). Nevertheless, a plaintiff cannot state a claim for violation of the Fourth Amendment where the officer had probable cause for the traffic stop. "A police officer has probable cause for a traffic stop when he has an objectively reasonable basis to believe a traffic law has been violated. Moreover, probable cause exists when the circumstances confronting an officer support the reasonable belief that a driver has committed even a minor traffic offense." United States v. Hernandez-Rivas, 513 F.3d 753, 758-59 (7th Cir.2008) (citing United States v. Dowthard, 500 F.3d 567, 569 (7th Cir. 2007)).

Here, Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment claim fails because the officers had probable cause to believe that Plaintiffs were violating the Ordinance: the officers observed Plaintiffs driving while using a mobile phone without a hands-free device. See United States v. Figueroa-Espana, 511 F.3d 696, 701 (7th Cir.2007) (finding that plaintiff could not challenge the constitutionality of a traffic stop where the officer observed that the vehicle was in violation of the traffic code). Indeed, Plaintiffs themselves concede that they were engaged in the prohibited activity — driving with a wireless telephone without the use of a "hands-free" device — when they were stopped. (R. 15, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 44, 50, 56.) Reliance on a presumptively valid ordinance, even if it is later ruled unconstitutional, provides probable cause for an arrest. Doe v. Heck, 327 F.3d 492, 516 (7th Cir.2003).

Furthermore, even if Plaintiffs could state a Fourth Amendment claim against the officers, the officers would be entitled to qualified immunity. The Supreme Court has set forth a two-part test for determining whether a defendant is entitled to qualified immunity: "(1) whether the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, show that the defendants violated a constitutional right; [and] (2) whether that constitutional right was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation." Chelios v. Heavener, 520 F.3d 678, 690 (7th Cir.2008) (citing Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001)). The Court has already concluded that the Defendant officers did not violate Plaintiffs' constitutional rights because the officers had probable cause to detain Plaintiffs for violating the Ordinance. Moreover, even if Plaintiffs could satisfy the first part of the test, the officers would be entitled to qualified immunity because the Ordinance has not been previously challenged, and there is nothing so "flagrantly unconstitutional" about the traffic Ordinance that would have alerted the Defendant officers to the possibility that the Ordinance is unenforceable. Heck, 327 F.3d at 516 ("[t]he enactment of a law forecloses speculation by enforcement officers concerning its constitutionality — with the possible exception of a law so grossly and flagrantly unconstitutional that any person of reasonable prudence would be bound to see its flaws."). Accordingly, a reasonable officer would not have understood his actions to be unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment, and thus the Defendant officers are entitled to qualified immunity. Id.

Therefore, Defendants' motion to dismiss Count I for failure to state a claim is granted.

B. False Arrest under Illinois Law

In order to establish false arrest under Illinois law, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) he was restrained or arrested by the defendants;" and (2) the defendants acted without reasonable grounds to believe that the plaintiff committed an offense. Meerbrey v. Marshall Field & Co., Inc., 139 Ill.2d 455, 151 Ill.Dec. 560, 564 N.E.2d 1222, 1231 (1990); Johnson v. Target Stores, Inc., 341 Ill.App.3d 56, 274 Ill.Dec. 795, 791 N.E.2d 1206, 1219-20 (2003). Under Illinois law — as under federal law — a plaintiff cannot state a claim for false arrest stemming from a traffic stop where the officer had probable cause to believe that the driver of the vehicle had committed a traffic violation. People v. Matous, 320 Ill.Dec. 209, 886 N.E.2d 1278, 1283 (2008). As explained above, Plaintiffs concede that they were engaged in activity prohibited by the Ordinance when they were stopped. Therefore, for the reasons explained above, the officers had probable cause to make the traffic stops, and Plaintiffs fail to state a...