Gulf Coast Rental Co. L.L.C. v. City of Gulf Shores, et al.

Summary

In this order, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama addresses cross-motions for summary judgment concerning the denial of a golf-cart rental business license and the enactment of a city ordinance effectively banning golf-cart rentals. The court grants the defendants' motions in part, including summary judgment on the plaintiff's ADA claims based on discriminatory treatment and failure to make reasonable modifications, and addresses the plaintiff's substantive due process and other claims. The remaining action is remanded under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3).

Holdings

1. The plaintiff failed to create a genuine dispute that the license denial or Ordinance 2127 was motivated by the disability of persons associated with the plaintiff. The defendants were therefore entitled to summary judgment on the intentional-discrimination theory.
2. A Title II failure-to-make-a-reasonable-modification claim requires the plaintiff to request a modification and the public entity to refuse it. Because the plaintiff admitted that it made no request before filing suit, and could not amend its pleadings through summary-judgment briefing, the claim failed.
3. The denial of the plaintiff's golf-cart business license did not violate substantive due process because the plaintiff had no fundamental right to operate this particular business, and the denial did not approach exclusion from its occupation or profession.
4. The plaintiff's equal protection claim failed because it did not identify a comparator that was similarly situated in all relevant respects. The plaintiff's proposed comparators served different customers, operated in different locations, and used golf carts for materially different purposes.
5. After dismissing all claims over which it had original federal-question jurisdiction, the court exercised its discretion under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3) to remand the remaining state-law claims.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the plaintiff presented sufficient evidence of intentional disability-association discrimination under Title II of the ADA based on denial of its license application or enactment of Ordinance 2127.
2. Whether the plaintiff's failure-to-make-a-reasonable-modification claim failed because the plaintiff made no pre-suit request for a modification.
3. Whether denial of the golf-cart business license deprived the plaintiff of a protected liberty interest in pursuing an occupation in violation of substantive due process.
4. Whether the plaintiff established a class-of-one equal protection claim by identifying a prima facie identical comparator and showing no rational basis for the different treatment.
5. Whether the court should decline supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims after dismissing all federal claims.

Disposition

other