Opinion ID: 2641089
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Houston has Standing

Text: As demonstrated in Shotz, in a motion to dismiss, we usually “evaluate standing based on the facts alleged in the complaint.” 256 F.3d at 1081. Here, however, Defendant Marod in his Rule 12(b)(1) motion attacked Plaintiff Houston’s standing in a factual challenge—as opposed to a facial challenge. Facial attacks to subject matter jurisdiction require the court merely to look and see if the plaintiff’s complaint has sufficiently alleged a basis of subject matter jurisdiction, and the allegations in his complaint are taken as true for the purposes of the motion. Carmichael v. Kellogg, Brown & Root Servs., Inc., 572 F.3d 1271, 1279 (11th Cir. 2009). However, in a factual challenge to subject matter jurisdiction, a district court can “consider extrinsic evidence such as deposition testimony and affidavits.” Id. In so doing, a district court is “free to weigh the facts” and is “not constrained to view them in the light most favorable” to the plaintiff. Id. Here, both Marod and Houston filed and argued evidence outside the complaint. But the relevant facts contained in their evidence were not disputed, 5 Defendant Marod argues that our decision in Stevens conflicts with the Supreme Court’s holding in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 112 S. Ct. 2130 (1992), that “some day intentions” are not enough. Id. at 564, 112 S. Ct. at 1238. We need not address that issue because, as explained in our Lujan discussion later, the facts in Houston’s case establish more than the plaintiff did in Stevens and satisfy Lujan. 26 Case: 12-15403 Date Filed: 11/01/2013 Page: 27 of 43 such as (1) Houston’s two prior visits to the Presidente Supermarket, (2) his proximity to the store, (3) his averments as to future visits, and (4) that Houston is an ADA tester who has filed many similar lawsuits. Indeed, the district court acknowledged that Houston plans to return to the supermarket. Having concluded that Houston’s undisputed tester motive behind his plan to return does not defeat standing, we now conclude that the other undisputed facts are sufficient to establish Houston’s standing. Plaintiff Houston had two undisputed past encounters of the alleged architectural barriers in the Presidente Supermarket. While “past wrongs do not in themselves amount to that real and immediate threat of injury necessary to make out a case or controversy,” Lyons, 461 U.S. at 103, 103 S. Ct. at 1666, the plaintiff’s exposure to illegal conduct in the past is nonetheless “evidence bearing on whether there is a real and immediate threat of repeated injury,” O’Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 496, 94 S. Ct. 669, 676 (1974). As this Court stated in Shotz, a plaintiff seeking an injunction under Title III either must “have attempted to return” to the non-compliant building or at least “intend to do so in the future.” 256 F.3d at 1081. Plaintiff Houston has visited this particular supermarket twice and encountered the alleged architectural barriers during each visit. He submitted a receipt from the second visit. We therefore note that Houston did, in fact, return to 27 Case: 12-15403 Date Filed: 11/01/2013 Page: 28 of 43 the Presidente Supermarket before filing this lawsuit, even after he had faced the alleged barriers during his first visit. Turning to the 30.5 mile distance between Plaintiff Houston’s residence and the Presidente Supermarket, we understand that this particular store is not the closest supermarket to Houston’s home. But Houston explained his reason to go to this store: he travels to Miami-Dade County, where the Presidente Supermarket is located, “on a regular basis,” and Houston expects to be there in the future. Houston takes these trips to Miami-Dade County because his lawyer’s offices are located there—less than two miles from the Presidente Supermarket. And because of his many ADA lawsuits, Plaintiff Houston “definitely” anticipates going to his lawyer’s offices “in the near future.” Houston passes the Presidente Supermarket on his way to and from his lawyer’s office. According to his affidavit, Houston therefore “would return to the Defendant’s store to shop if [he] were able to park in the parking spaces, have accessible restrooms, and be able to avail [him]self of the store’s other facilities.” Under these particular, undisputed facts, we cannot say that a distance of 30.5 miles makes the threat of future injury conjectural. Of course, different facts may demand a different conclusion. Plaintiff Houston lives in the next county. He does not live hundreds of miles away from the store with no particular reason to return. 28 Case: 12-15403 Date Filed: 11/01/2013 Page: 29 of 43 In light of the totality of the undisputed facts here, we conclude that Plaintiff Houston has standing to seek injunctive relief for violations of 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182(a) and 12182(b)(2)(A)(iv) of the ADA’s Title III. See Shotz, 256 F.3d at 1081. There is no indication in the record that the alleged architectural barriers in the Presidente Supermarket have been remedied. As a result, there is a 100 percent likelihood that Plaintiff Houston will suffer the alleged injury again when he returns to the store. Cf. 31 Foster Children v. Bush, 329 F.3d 1255, 1266 (11th Cir. 2003) (holding that “when the threatened acts that will cause injury are authorized or part of a policy, it is significantly more likely that the injury will occur again”). The likelihood of Houston suffering future injury thus is not contingent upon events that are speculative or beyond his control. Cf. Lyons, 461 U.S. at 107-09, 103 S. Ct. at 1668-69 (holding that the plaintiff lacked standing for injunctive relief because it was speculative that police officers would arrest him again and that those police officers would then apply an allegedly unconstitutional chokehold again). Rather, the cause of the injury continues to exist, and the likelihood of Houston encountering that cause in the future depends only on Houston’s own volition. Houston has been to the store in the past, he wants to return, and his frequent trips directly past the store render it likely that he would do so were it not for the alleged ADA violations in the Presidente Supermarket. Under the totality 29 Case: 12-15403 Date Filed: 11/01/2013 Page: 30 of 43 of the facts here, the threat of future injury to Houston is not merely “conjectural” or “hypothetical.” Instead, it is “real and immediate.” See Church v. City of Huntsville, 30 F.3d 1332, 1337-39 (11th Cir. 1994) (finding standing for homeless plaintiffs to seek injunctive relief to stop certain police practices). 6