Opinion ID: 2559108
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: mr. breakman's complaint and the standing issue

Text: In his complaint, Mr. Breakman proclaims that AOL violated the CPPA by failing to disclose to current District of Columbia dial-up users that new dial-up members essentially receive the same service for a significantly smaller monthly payment. Paragraph 12. He does not claim to have been personally injured by AOL, but brings his suit solely in a representative capacity on behalf of the interests of the general public . . . . [80] Paragraph 5. In sum, Mr. Breakman's complaint is self-defeating; by resting his claim entirely on the legal rights or interests of third parties; he cannot demonstrate the requisite injury-in-fact for standing in our courts. [81] By stating that he brings his claim in a wholly representative capacity, Mr. Breakman essentially implies that as the party seeking review, he himself [is not] among the injured. [82] Our principles of justiciability recognize that the injury-in-fact requirement can be satisfied solely by virtue of `statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which creates standing.' [83] But without any claimed invasion of statutorily conferred rights and without any other distinct and palpable injury personal to Mr. Breakman, we cannot justify the invocation of our jurisdiction and the exercise of . . . remedial powers on his behalf. Mr. Breakman's only connection to the affected AOL customers is residence in the District; he is in no different a position to bring this claim than any other unaffected citizen. Paragraph 14. Mr. Breakman's mere interest in the alleged unlawfulness of AOL's business practices, no matter how longstanding the interest and no matter how qualified [he] is in evaluating the problem, is not sufficient by itself to render [him] adversely affected or aggrieved for standing purposes. [84] Because he failed to allege the requisite injury-in-fact, we conclude that the trial court properly dismissed Mr. Breakman's claim for want of subject matter jurisdiction. [85]