Dominguez v. Banana Republic, LLC

613 F.Supp.3d 759

Yovanny DOMINGUEZ, individually and on behalf of all other persons similarly situated, Plaintiff,

v.BANANA REPUBLIC, LLC, Defendant.

1:19-cv-10171-GHW

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

April 23, 2020

Bradly Gurion Marks, The Marks Law Firm PC, New York, NY, for Plaintiff.

Michael Friel Fleming, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, New York, NY, Anne Marie Estevez, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Miami, FL, Stephanie Schuster, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

GREGORY H. WOODS, United States District Judge:

Although the question presented in this case is novel, it is certainly not unique. Over the past eight months, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York have been flooded with litigation from a handful of plaintiffs seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, and, of course, attorneys' costs and fees for alleged failures by numerous retail and service establishments to sell accessible gift cards.¹ Much of this litigation is premised on the meritless argument that Title III of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12181, et seq. , requires retailers to create specialty goods for the visually impaired. Because no read of the ADA supports that allegation, Banana Republic, LLC's motion to dismiss is GRANTED.

I. BACKGROUND²

The premise of this case is relatively straightforward. Banana Republic, LLC ("Defendant" or "Banana Republic"), like many other retail businesses, offers consumers the opportunity to purchase "pre-paid cash cards, colloquially referred as ‘store gift cards,’ " that can be used in place of cash at its stores. First Amended Complaint ("FAC"), Dkt. No. 22, ¶¶ 4 & n.2, 55. Though they look and feel like credit cards, see FAC ¶ 35, they are redeemable only at "a specified merchant or affiliated merchants." FAC ¶ 29 & n.4.

On October 26, 2019, Yovanny Dominguez ("Plaintiff") called Banana Republic's customer service office to ask whether the store sold Braille gift cards. See FAC ¶ 16. An employee told him that Banana Republic did not. See FAC ¶ 16. During that call, the employee did not offer Plaintiff any alternative auxiliary aids or services. See FAC ¶ 17. Sometime later, Plaintiff unsuccessfully attempted to locate accessible Banana Republic gift cards on his own. See FAC ¶ 18. The lack of an accessible gift card deterred Plaintiff from "fully and equally us[ing] or enjoy[ing]" the "facilities, goods, and services Defendant offers to the public at its retail stores." FAC ¶ 42. As soon as accessible gift cards are available, however, "Plaintiff intends to immediately go purchase" one. FAC ¶ 45.

Plaintiff sued Banana Republic under the ADA, the New York State Human Rights Law ("NYSHRL"), N.Y. Exec. Law § 290 et seq. , and New York City Human Rights Law ("NYCHRL"), N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-101 et seq. , seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and a permanent injunction to "cause a change in Defendant's corporate policies, practices, and procedures so that Defendant's store gift cards will become and remain accessible to blind and visually-impaired consumers," and, of course, attorney's fees.

Banana Republic moved to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6).

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A. Standing

A district court must dismiss a claim under Rule 12(b)(1) if a plaintiff fails to allege facts sufficient to establish standing under Article III of the Constitution. See Cortlandt Street Recovery Corp. v. Hellas Telecomm. , 790 F.3d 411, 416–17 (2d Cir. 2015). The plaintiff bears the burden of "alleging facts that affirmatively and plausibly suggest that it has standing to sue." Id. at 417 (quotation and alteration omitted). Each element of standing "must be supported in the same way as any other matter on which the plaintiff bears the burden of proof, i.e. , with the manner and degree of evidence required at the successive stages of the litigation." Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife , 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). Here, this requires the Court to "accept as true all material allegations of the complaint and construe the complaint in favor of the complaining party," but the Court may "rely on evidence outside the complaint." Hellas Telecomm. , 790 F.3d at 417 (quotation and alterations omitted).

Constitutional standing has three "irreducible" elements:

First, the plaintiff must have suffered an injury in fact—an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical. Second, there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of—the injury has to be fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant, and not the result of the independent action of some third party not before the court. Third, it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. Lujan , 504 U.S. at 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130 (internal citations and quotations omitted). Plaintiffs seeking injunctive relief must also prove that the identified injury in fact presents a "real and immediate threat of future injury." Shain v. Ellison , 356 F.3d 211, 215 (2d Cir. 2004).

B. Failure to state a claim

For a complaint to survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), it "must allege sufficient facts, taken as true, to state a plausible claim for relief." Johnson v. Priceline.com, Inc. , 711 F.3d 271, 275 (2d Cir. 2013) (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 555–56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). Courts follow a "two-pronged approach" in determining plausibility. Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). "First, although a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint, that tenet is inapplicable to legal conclusions, and threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice." Harris v. Mills , 572 F.3d 66, 72 (2d Cir. 2009) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 ). Second, a court determines "whether the ‘well-pleaded factual allegations,’ assumed to be true, ‘plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief.’ " Hayden v. Paterson , 594 F.3d 150, 161 (2d Cir. 2010) (quoting Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937 ). This analysis is a "context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense." Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937. A district court may consider not only the "facts stated on the face of the complaint," but also "documents appended to the complaint or incorporated in the complaint by reference," as well as "matters of which judicial notice may be taken." Leonard F. v. Israel Discount Bank of N.Y. , 199 F.3d 99, 107 (2d Cir. 1999) (internal quotations omitted omitted).

To state a claim for violation of Title III, a plaintiff must "establish that (1) he or she is disabled within the meaning of the ADA; (2) that the defendants own, lease, or operate a place of public accommodation; and (3) that the defendants discriminated against the plaintiff within the meaning of the ADA." Roberts v. Royal Atlantic Corp. , 542 F.3d 363, 368 (2d Cir. 2008).

Plaintiff alleges violations of the ADA, the NYSHRL, and the NYCHRL. The Court turns first to the jurisdictional question of whether it has standing to adjudicate Plaintiff's claims before determining whether the First Amended Complaint survives Defendant's motion to dismiss.

III. STANDING

A. ADA

Under Second Circuit precedent, a plaintiff has standing in an ADA suit seeking injunctive relief—the only relief available to private plaintiffs under Title III—"where (1) the plaintiff alleged past injury under the ADA; (2) it was reasonable to infer that the discriminatory treatment would continue; and (3) it was reasonable to infer, based on the past frequency of plaintiff's visits and the proximity of defendants' [services] to plaintiff's home, that plaintiff intended to return to the subject location." Kreisler v. Second Ave. Diner Corp., 731 F.3d 184, 187–88 (2d Cir. 2013) (per curiam). "Applying this standard in Camarillo [v. Carrols Corp. , 518 F.3d 153 (2d. Cir. 2008)], for example, [the Second Circuit] found standing where (1) defendants had failed to effectively communicate menu items to the legally blind plaintiff—an alleged ADA violation, (2) this discriminatory treatment was likely to continue, and (3) the plaintiff's past visits and proximity to the restaurant made it reasonable to infer her intent to return." Bernstein v. City of New York , 621 F. App'x 56, 57 (2d Cir. 2015). The "intent to return" element is critical; "Plaintiffs lack standing to pursue injunctive relief where they are unable to establish a ‘real or immediate threat’ of injury." Nicosia v. Amazon.com, Inc. , 834 F.3d 220, 239 (2d Cir. 2016) (quoting City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 111–12, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983) ). "The Supreme Court has repeatedly reiterated that threatened injury must be certainly impending to constitute injury in fact, and that allegations of possible future injury are not sufficient." Am. Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper , 785 F.3d 787, 800 (2d Cir. 2015) (emphasis in original, alterations and internal quotation marks omitted).

Turning first to injury-in-fact: An injury-in-fact under Title III of the ADA exists where plaintiffs "have encountered barriers at public accommodations" and "if they show a plausible intention or desire to return to the place but for the barriers to access." Small v. General Nutrition Cos., Inc. , 388 F. Supp. 2d 83, 86 (E.D.N.Y. 2005). This injury can take two forms: "direct injury from personally encountering disability-based discrimination" or "deterrence from using Defendant's property because it is not ADA compliant." Feltzin v. Triangle Properties #1, LLC , No. 14-CV-5131(JMA...