UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

DALLAS DIVISION

NURAN INC.,

Plaintiff,

v.

CITY OF DALLAS,

Defendant.

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Civil Action No. 3:22-CV-1105-X

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

This case is a challenge by an apartment complex owner against the City of 

Dallas for allegedly violating federal and state laws protecting religious liberty. The 

owner claims that the City began unlawfully targeting it when the City discovered, 

among other things, that the owner had converted a laundry room into a Mosque. 

But predating this federal suit is the City’s state court suit to enforce its zoning laws 

and permitting procedures. 

The specific motion before this Court is the plaintiff Nuran Inc.’s motion for a 

temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. [Doc. No. 4]. The Court is 

likely to abstain from the case pursuant to Younger v. Harris1 because Nuran’s 

requested injunction would directly conflict with the existing state court injunction, 

and Nuran makes no showing that the state court case is an inadequate forum for its 

arguments. Accordingly, the Court DENIES the motion.

1

 401 U.S. 37 (1971).

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I. Factual Background

The plaintiff, Nuran Inc., owns over 600 apartments units in the Vickery 

Meadow neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. Two of Nuran’s properties are at issue in 

this case: the Sunchase and Ivy apartments.2 Nuran purchased the Sunchase in 1994 

and the Ivy in 2010. The apartments are home to a large refugee community, which 

relies on various refugee assistance organizations and faith-based groups for support. 

For the purposes of this motion, there are two key facts about the apartments. 

First, in 2006, Nuran constructed a building at the Sunchase with two community 

rooms (or spaces) “for the purpose of providing space for charitable organization to 

assist tenant refugees.”3 Myriad charitable organizations, including churches, have 

used the space since then. Second, at some point, Nuran converted one of the Ivy’s 

laundry rooms into a Mosque/prayer room. 

In 2012, the City sued Nuran in state district court, alleging that the properties 

violated “many provisions of the City’s minimum property standards . . . and failed to 

obtain required permits and certificates of occupancy.”4 In that litigation, Nuran 

agreed to, and the state court entered, a temporary injunction requiring Nuran to 

cure the violations, obtain permits and certificates of occupancy, and pay civil 

penalties. 

2

 7317 Holly Hill Drive and 7225 Fair Oaks Avenue, respectively.

3

 Doc. No. 1 at 4.

4

 Doc. No. 12 at 7. 

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Later, thanks to tips provided by the aid organizations that operate there, the 

City “became aware of the present state of [Nuran’s] properties.”5 The City began 

investigating and inspecting the properties and documented over seventy (alleged) 

violations of the Dallas City Code and the Dallas Fire Code, including “rat 

infestations, unaddressed water leaks, unworkmanlike repairs, sewer caps covered 

in cement, and no basic life safety systems [like] smoke alarms and fire 

extinguishers.”6 As for the community service spaces and the Mosque/prayer room, 

the City faulted Nuran for failing to obtain the necessary building permits and 

certificates of occupancy. The City states that such permits and certificates are 

necessary because those spaces are not “customarily incidental” to the multifamily 

apartment use and not for “the exclusive use of the [apartment’s] residences and their 

guests” as required by Dallas City Code Section 51A-4.209(b)(5)(E)(i). 

In November 2021, the City again sued Nuran in state district court to address 

these issues.7 In March 2022, Nuran agreed to a temporary injunction.8 Among 

other things, the state court ordered and Nuran agreed to “immediately implement 

and maintain on a continuing basis . . . measures to abate or repair any identified 

violations on The Properties to bring them into compliance . . . with the Dallas City 

Code and Dallas Fire Code”; to “obtain necessary permits for all unpermitted 

5 Id.

6 Id.; see also Doc. No. 13 at 8–10 (City’s First Amended Petition and Request for Temporary 

and Permanent Injunctions).

7

 The Court can and does take judicial notice of the state court proceedings. See Kahn v. Ripley, 

772 F. App’x 141, 142 (5th Cir. 2019).

8

 Doc. No. 13 at 177–84.

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modifications (e.g., conversion of Ivy’s laundromat to a prayer room, among others)”; 

and to “either immediately cease or continue to cease occupancy and use of any 

unpermitted uses including but not limited to the Community Service Center and 

Prayer Room on The Properties without a certificate of occupancy.”9 The state court 

also set an inspection schedule with various deadlines. On May 6, 2022, the City 

notified Nuran of its failure to the comply with the state court’s agreed temporary 

injunction. 

On May 17, 2022, Nuran filed in the state court a “Motion to Recognize 

Voidness of, and to Dissolve, the Temporary Injunction.”10 In that motion, Nuran 

argues that the temporary injunction to which it had agreed is void under Rule 683 

of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure because it lacks specificity. Nuran did not assert 

any other grounds for relief from the injunction.

One day later, Nuran filed its complaint in this Court. Nuran alleges that 

“[u]ntil recently, [it] had a stellar inspection record with the City.”11 Nuran explains 

that it “has worked with numerous organizations seeking to improve the lives of 

others” and built the community service spaces “to be used for the purpose of 

providing space for charitable organizations to assist tenant refugees.”12 Various aid 

organizations operate on the property and serve refugees by giving out food, teaching 

children to read, teaching children about religion, providing supplies, and facilitating 

9 Id. at 178, 180.

10 Id. at 209–15.

11 Doc. No. 1 at 1.

12 Id. at 4. 

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computer training and other job-skills programs. Nuran states that it converted the 

laundry room into a Mosque/prayer room “[t]o accommodate [its Muslim tenants’] 

religious needs.”13

What Nuran characterizes as a positive relationship with the City “changed 

when individuals in the City Attorneys’ Office began a campaign of harassment 

motivated by racial and religious animus and prejudice.”14 Nuran alleges that the 

City’s concerns are “pretextual” and a “campaign against diversity.”15 Nuran alleges 

that the City inspected the Mosque on a Friday (the “weekly Holy day for Muslims”), 

“demanded that the Mosque be closed,” and sought “to find any trumped up minor 

code violation that could be concocted.”16 Finally, Nuran alleges that the City 

“expelled” from the property various aid organizations and church groups that have 

been using the community service spaces.17 Nuran charges the City with violating 

the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the 

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Fair Housing Act, and the Texas 

Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 

Nuran also filed the instant motion for a temporary restraining order and 

preliminary injunction.18 Nuran seeks an “order and injunction restraining and 

enjoining the City . . . from interfering with or preventing prayer services on 

13 Id. at 6.

14 Id. at 1. 

15 Id. at 8.

16 Id. at 7. 

17 Id.

18 Doc. No. 4. 

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Plaintiff’s property or the operation of religiously motivated nonprofits.”19 Nowhere 

in the complaint, motion, or accompanying brief did Nuran’s counsel disclose the 

existence of the state court’s injunction commanding Nuran to “cease or continue to 

cease [non-compliant] occupancy and use of . . . the Community Service Center and 

Prayer Room on The Properties.”20 This constitutes a disappointing and flagrant 

violation of counsel’s duty of candor to the Court. 

In response, the City argues that the Court should deny the motion under the 

Younger abstention doctrine.

II. Legal Standard

An applicant seeking a temporary restraining order “must show: (1) a 

substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (2) a substantial threat of irreparable 

harm if the injunction is not granted; (3) that the threatened injury outweighs any 

harm that the injunction might cause to the defendant; and (4) that the injunction 

will not disserve the public interest.”21 A temporary restraining order “is an 

extraordinary and drastic remedy, not to be granted routinely, but only when the 

movant, by a clear showing, carries the burden of persuasion.”22 The applicant bears 

19 Id. at 1.

20 Doc. No. 13 at 180.

21 Opulent Life Church v. City of Holly Springs, 697 F.3d 279, 288 (5th Cir. 2012); see also 

Liccardi v. Smith, No. 3:21-CV-0314-E (BH), 2021 WL 5184092, at *2 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 19, 2021) 

(Ramirez, J.) (“[T]he plaintiff must satisfy the substantive requirements for a preliminary injunction 

to obtain a TRO.”), report and recommendation adopted sub nom. Liccardi v. Fed. Express Corp., No. 

3:21-CV-00314-E, 2021 WL 5140900 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 4, 2021) (Brown, J.).

22 White v. Carlucci, 862 F.2d 1209, 1211 (5th Cir. 1989) (cleaned up).

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the burden of persuasion on all four elements, and failure on any one of them 

warrants denial.23 

The Younger abstention doctrine “is based on considerations of equity, comity, 

and federalism.”24 “[I]t applies only to ‘three exceptional categories’ of state 

proceedings: ongoing criminal prosecutions, certain civil enforcement proceedings 

akin to criminal prosecutions, and ‘pending civil proceedings involving certain 

orders . . . uniquely in furtherance of the state courts’ ability to perform their judicial 

functions.’”25 Generally, the Younger doctrine requires federal courts to decline to 

exercise their jurisdiction “when three conditions are met: (1) the federal proceeding 

would interfere with an ‘ongoing state judicial proceeding’; (2) the state has an 

important interest in regulating the subject matter of the claim; and (3) the plaintiff 

has ‘an adequate opportunity in the state proceedings to raise constitutional 

challenges.’”26 

III. Analysis

The Court concludes that Nuran fails to establish a likelihood of success on the 

merits. The Court finds it likely that it will abstain from this matter entirely 

23 Bluefield Water Ass’n, Inc. v. City of Starkville, 577 F.3d 250, 253 (5th Cir. 2009); Enter. Int’l, 

Inc. v. Corporacion Estatal Petrolera Ecuatoriana, 762 F.2d 464, 472 (5th Cir. 1985).

24 DeSpain v. Johnston, 731 F.2d 1171, 1175–76 (5th Cir. 1984).

25 Google, Inc. v. Hood, 822 F.3d 212, 222 (5th Cir. 2016) (quoting Sprint Commc’ns, Inc. v. 

Jacobs, 571 U.S. 69, 73, 78 (2013) (cleaned up)).

26 Bice v. La. Pub. Def. Bd., 677 F.3d 712, 716 (2012) (quoting Middlesex Cnty. Ethics Comm. 

v. Garden State Bar Ass’n, 457 U.S. 423, 432 (1982)).

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pursuant to the Younger abstention doctrine. Younger applies to this civil proceeding 

because it is akin to a criminal prosecution.27

First, there is certainly an ongoing state judicial proceeding that existed before 

Nuran initiated this federal action. It appears that the relief requested in the 

complaint generally and in this motion specifically would indeed interfere with that 

state proceeding. As explained above, the state court’s injunction requires Nuran to 

cease its non-compliant uses of the community service spaces and the Mosque/prayer 

room (by allowing members of the public other than residents and their guests to use 

the space and allowing non-incidental use of the spaces) and to obtain the necessary 

permits and certificates of occupancy. The order that Nuran seeks from this Court 

would require basically the opposite: it would enjoin the City “from interfering with 

or preventing prayer services on Plaintiff’s property or the operation of religiously 

motivated nonprofits.”28 

Second, the state proceeding implicates a state interest important to all cities 

not named Houston—namely, the City’s ability to enforce its zoning ordinances as 

well as its permitting procedures.29 

Third, the Court also finds it likely that the state court case provides an 

adequate opportunity for Nuran to litigate its constitutional and related claims. As 

27 See Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 604–05 (1975) (federal court should not interfere 

in state court civil nuisance proceeding); Middlesex Cnty. Ethics Comm., 457 U.S. at 437 (federal court 

should not interfere in county bar association’s administrative proceeding concerning lawyer’s ethical 

violations).

28 Doc. No. 4 at 1.

29 See Huffman, 420 U.S. at 604 (“[T]h[is civil] proceeding is both in aid of and closely related 

to criminal statutes which prohibit the dissemination of obscene materials. Thus, an offense to the 

State’s interest in the nuisance litigation is likely to be every bit as great as it would be were this a 

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explained above, Nuran did not raise any of its constitutional and statutory 

arguments as a basis for its motion to dissolve the state court’s temporary injunction, 

and it has not explained that it sought any other forms of relief from the state court. 

Indeed, Nuran appears to have not raised a substantive legal argument at all; it 

argued that the injunction was void based on the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.30 

The Supreme Court has explained that “when a litigant has not attempted to present 

his federal claims in related state-court proceedings, a federal court should assume 

that state procedures will afford an adequate remedy, in the absence of unambiguous 

authority to the contrary.”31 

Moreover—not only does Nuran bear the burden of persuasion on each element 

for a temporary restraining order—but it is also specifically required to “establish 

th[e] contention” that the state court would not provide an adequate opportunity to 

assert its federal claims.32 Nuran has failed to do so. In response to the City’s 

argument that Younger applies, Nuran argues that an injunction from this Court 

would not interfere with the state proceeding (Younger’s first prong), but makes no 

criminal proceeding.”); Night Clubs, Inc. v. City of Fort Smith, 163 F.3d 475, 480 (8th Cir. 1998) (“[I]t 

is well-established that for abstention purposes, the enforcement and application of zoning ordinances 

and land use regulations is an important state and local interest.”); Izzo v. Borough of River Edge, 843 

F.2d 765, 769 (3d Cir. 1988) (“We share . . . the federal judiciary’s traditional respect for local 

administration and control of land use regulation. Federal courts have expressly disavowed any desire 

to sit as a statewide board of zoning appeals hearing challenges to municipalities. . . . Land use policy 

customarily has been considered . . . an area in which the tenets of federalism are particularly 

strong.”).

30 Doc. No. 13 at 209–15.

31 Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 15 (1987).

32 Bice, 677 F.3d at 718–719 (“Because he did not attempt to bring his [federal] claim in state 

court, Bice bears the burden of establishing this contention [Younger’s third prong].” (citing Pennzoil, 

481 U.S. at 14)).

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argument with respect to Younger’s third prong. Thus, Nuran has failed to carry its 

burden. 

IV. Conclusion

Because the Court finds its likely that it will abstain from this matter pursuant 

to the Younger abstention doctrine, the Court DENIES Nuran’s motion for a 

preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. 

IT IS SO ORDERED this 9th day of June, 2022.

____________________________________

BRANTLEY STARR

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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