Chabad Chayil, Inc. v. Sch. Bd. of Miami-Dade Cnty. Fla.

Chabad Chayil, Inc., Plaintiff, v. The School Board of Miami-Dade County Floridaand Miami -Dade County, Office of Inspector General, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 20-21084-Civ-Scola

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

January 22, 2021

Order Granting Motions to Dismiss

Plaintiff Chabad Chayil, Inc., complains Defendants The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida (the "School Board") and the Miami-Dade County, Office of Inspector General (the "OIG"), violated its rights with respect to an OIG investigation, the OIG's resulting reports, and, ultimately, the School Board's denying Chabad Chayil's access to School Board facilities. (Am. Compl., ECF No. 27.) In its sixty-page amended complaint, Chabad lodges four claims against the School Board alone: one claim, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for violating its free-expression rights under the U.S. Constitution, and three claims under Florida law; and four claims against the Defendants together: three claims under § 1983 for violating its free-exercise, equal protection, and procedural-due-process rights under the U.S. Constitution; and one claim for violating its due-process rights under the Florida Constitution. (Id. ¶¶ 195-254.) The complaint also seeks an injunction, as well as declaratory relief. (Id. ¶¶ 255-66.) The Defendants, separately, seek dismissal of the complaint in its entirety. (OIG's Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 49; Sch. Bd.'s Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 50.) The OIG argues the complaint fails to establish that the OIG has deprived Chabad Chayil of any constitutional rights. The School Board, in its motion, submits Chabad Chayil has failed to state claims for municipal liability regarding its four § 1983 claims; for violations of its right to the free exercise of its religion and free expression; for equal-protection violations; for due-process violations; or for injunctive or declaratory relief. Chabad Chayil has responded to both motions (Pl.'s Resp. to OIG, ECF No. 54; Pl.'s Resp. to Sch. Bd., ECF No. 55), separately, and the Defendants have replied (OIG's Reply, ECF No. 60; Sch. Bd.'s Reply, ECF No. 61), also separately. After careful review, the Court concludes Chabad Chayil's federal claims should be dismissed with prejudice. And, because jurisdiction is based on federal-question jurisdiction, the Court exercises its discretion to dismiss the remaining state-law claims, without prejudice. Accordingly, the Court grants both motions to dismiss (ECF Nos. 49, 50.)

1. Background¹

Chabad Chayil, a non-profit organization, is run by Rabbi Kievman and his wife Layah Kievman. (Am. Comp. ¶ 18, 23.) Through Chabad Chayil, the Kievmans say they fulfill their obligation "to worry about the physical, spiritual, and emotional state" of "each child," regardless of religion. (Id. ¶¶ 22, 23.) This obligation arises out of the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in accordance with the principles of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. (Id. ¶¶ 18, 22.) Chabad Chayil runs many programs for the Jewish community, as well as others, in northeast Miami-Dade County, including a synagogue, classes on various Jewish topics, a Bar Mitzvah Club, a Bas Mitzvah Club, teen programming, holiday and Shabbat dinners, summer and winter camps, and an afterschool program called Community Hebrew Afterschool Program ("CHAP"). (Id. ¶ 19.) CHAP, started by Chabad Chayil in 2008, and available to children of all faiths and regardless of where they attend school, is described as a Jewish culture and Hebrew language afterschool program. (Id ¶¶ 23, 24, 27.)

When it first started, in 2008, CHAP served fewer than ten students and was held twice a week at Aventura Waterways K-8 ("Waterways K-8"), a Miami-Dade County public school. (Id. ¶ 26.) By the end of the 2019 school year, in contrast, CHAP registered about 200 students, whom it served, in full-time afterschool programs, at both Waterways K-8 as well as at another Miami-Dade public school, Virginia A. Boone Highland Oaks Elementary School ("Boone Elementary"). (Id. ¶¶ 26, 28.) At the same time, Chabad Chayil, apparently through other programs, also served several hundred teens at various high schools throughout the county. (Id. ¶ 26.)

In 2008, as Rabbi Kievman was launching CHAP, he contacted School Board member Dr. Martin Karp about how to get access to School Board facilities for his program. (Id. ¶ 31.) Karp directed Chabad Chayil to theprincipal of Waterways K-8, Luis Bello. (Id. ¶ 32.) Bello was receptive to the CHAP concept and told Chabad Chayil that he would ask the School Board Facility Use Office which forms would be required. (Id. ¶¶ 34-35.) Chabad Chayil says the Facility Use Office gave forms to Bello to give to Chabad Chayil, "indicating that those forms were the appropriate forms for Chabad Chayil to use to apply for access to [School Board] facilities." (Id. ¶ 36.) Chabad Chayil says that, "at Bello's direction, Chabad Chayil submitted the forms provided and [the School Board] approved the application for the 2008-09 school year, including an Affiliating Agreement form promulgated by [the School Board]." (Id. ¶ 37.) Chabad Chayil says it filled out this same paperwork for the 2009-10 school year, again at Bello's direction. (Id. ¶ 40.) During its initial year, Chabad Chayil charged $695 and a registration fee, for CHAP, but also had scholarships available for any child whose family could not afford the cost. (Id. ¶ 38.)

In 2009, a school for children with disabilities, Neytz HaChochma ("Neytz"), approached Chabad Chayil, seeking to partner with CHAP to offer a full-time afterschool program for children with special needs. (Id. ¶ 41.) Funding for the program was provided by the Children's Trust. (Id.) Chabad Chayil says "the funding provided to Neytz allowed Chabad Chayil to cover the cost of running CHAP, the remainder of which was funded by" donations to or debt incurred by Chabad Chayil. (Id.) The Children's Trust awarded a grant to Neytz, for the CHAP program, from 2009 through 2014. (Id. ¶ 42.) Thereafter, from 2014 through the 2018-19 school year, the grant was awarded directly to Chabad Chayil. (Id.)

The year after it began partnering with Neytz, beginning with the 2010-11 school year, Chabad Chayil approached Bello about expanding CHAP into a full-time afterschool program. (Id. ¶¶ 43, 44.) In response, Bello gave Chabad Chayil a different form to fill out: the School Board's Application for Temporary Use of School Building Facilities of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools - Temporary Use Agreement ("Temporary Use Agreement"). (Id. ¶ 45.)

Thereafter, in 2011, Chabad Chayil had various discussions with Bello as well as Waterways K-8's afterschool director about CHAP's fees and programming. (Id. ¶ 46-50.) As a result of those conversations, Chabad Chayil moved its story-hour programming to its own facility and charged a fee that was on par with the fee the afterschool director charged for her similar story-hour program, offered at Waterways K-8. (Id. ¶ 49.) Chabad Chayil also agreed, at Bello's prompting, to remove the $695 tuition amount it charged for its two-day-per-week program. (Id. ¶ 50.) Although Chabad Chayil acknowledges Bello had complained about Chabad Chayil's profiting from CHAP, while Bello's school received nothing, Chabad Chayil maintains it was never pointedly toldthat "it could not charge any fees of any kind" in order to be able to use School Board facilities. (Id. ¶¶ 46, 51.) As Chabad Chayil explains it, after the 2009-2010 school year, it did not "charge for any programming that took place at [School Board] facilities," but it did, nonetheless, "seek reimbursement for registration costs, and for costs of books, snacks, security, and for programming that was held at Chabad Chayil's [own] location." (Id. ¶ 55.) For the 2017-2018 school year, Chabad Chayil says it "no longer charged a registration fee" but still charged a "books and supply fee." (Id. ¶ 56.)

Chabad Chayil says that although it never specifically requested a fee waiver from the School Board to use its facilities, it nonetheless received fee waivers each year, from 2010 through 2019, to operate CHAP's full-time afterschool program at Waterways K-8. (Id. ¶¶ 52, 54.) According to Chabad Chayil, the fee waivers were requested by the principals at Waterways K-8 and Boone Elementary, not by Chabad Chayil directly. (Id. ¶ 54.)

A. The OIG's Investigation

At some point, the OIG received an anonymous complaint alleging Karp and his chief of staff, Jerold Blumstein, were improperly helping Chabad Chayil get free access to School Board facilities by falsely claiming that Chabad Chayil does not collect any funds for its aftercare services. (Id. ¶ 78; OIG Draft Rep., ECF No. 27-1, 2.) The complaint alleged Chabad Chayil had been, for years, fraudulently filling out School Board paperwork, representing it did not collect any fees for its services, so that it could use School Board facilities for free. (Am. Compl. ¶ 78; OIG Draft Rep. at 2.)

Thereafter, in July 2017, an OIG investigator contacted Chabad Chayil and asked for information about Chabad Chayil, CHAP, and CHAP's participants. (Am. Compl. ¶ 58.) Chabad Chayil says it provided the requested information. (Id. ¶ 60.) Once The Children's Trust was told that Chabad Chayil was "under investigation," it denied further funding for CHAP. (Id.)

A few months after being first contacted by OIG, in September 2017, School Board Chief Financial Officer Ron Steiger, told Chabad Chayil that it would have to pay $5,058 to use Waterways K-8 for CHAP. (Id. ¶ 70.) Chabad Chayil agreed to pay the fee but objected to paying any further fees beyond that. (Id. ¶ 71.)

B. The OIG's Reports

In June 2019, the OIG sent Chabad Chayil a 37-page draft report (plus exhibits) of its investigation. (Id. ¶ 72; OIG Draft Rep. at 1-146.) Chabad Chayil characterizes the draft report as inaccurate—both legally and factually—biased,misguided, and prejudicial, but provides few factual allegations that contradict...