Opinion ID: 6321084
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: These cases are before the court on review of motions to dismiss. Therefore, we recite the facts as Plaintiffs allege them, with reasonable inferences drawn in their favor. See VoteVets Action Fund v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affs., 992 F.3d 1097, 1102 (D.C. Cir. 2021). George Washington University and American University are institutions of higher learning located in Washington, D.C. GW offers approximately fifty on-campus doctorate programs and ten online doctorate programs. It offers seventy-five oncampus undergraduate programs and nine online undergraduate programs. GW charges significantly higher rates for its on-campus programs than for the online counterparts. American also offers a variety of on-campus degree programs. It does not offer undergraduate online degrees, although it does offer some undergraduate online courses. American’s Online Learning programs are “listed independently on a separate web page, where separate policies and cost information depend[] on the individual online program.” Qureshi Compl. ¶ 116, App. 21. Plaintiffs paid all tuition and fees required for enrollment in on-campus instruction and experiences for the spring 2020 semester. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic; travel and assembly restrictions in the United States quickly followed. In response to the pandemic, the Universities shifted all on-campus classes to online learning in mid-March 2020 and held classes virtually 8 for the rest of the semester. The Universities also suspended events and activities. Neither University offered prorated refunds of spring 2020 tuition or of the fees at issue in these actions. The Shaffer Plaintiffs – GW students and parents – filed a consolidated class action complaint in the District Court in July 2020. Their complaint alleges they “paid GW for high-quality, in-person instruction that is no longer available to them, access to buildings they can no longer enter, technology, programs[,] and services that GW is no longer providing, and activities that are no longer available,” resulting in “an enormous windfall to GW.” Shaffer Compl. ¶ 7, J.A. 17. The complaint includes claims for breach of express or implied contract, unjust enrichment, and conversion. Plaintiffs seek “disgorgement and monetary damages in the amount of prorated, unused amounts of tuition and fees that Plaintiffs and the other Class members paid.” Id. ¶ 8, J.A. 17. In the District Court, GW moved to dismiss. The trial court granted the motion, reasoning that “no plausible reading of the university materials gives rise to an enforceable contractual promise for in-person instruction.” Shaffer, 2021 WL 1124607, at . The court also concluded that Plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claim was inappropriate because it required the court to displace the terms of the alleged contract and that the conversion claim was insufficiently distinct from the contract claims. Id. at . The Qureshi Plaintiffs – American University students – filed a putative class action in the District Court raising similar claims. In addition to their claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conversion, the Qureshi Plaintiffs allege the University violated the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act. They ask the court to require the 9 University to “disgorge amounts wrongfully obtained for tuition and fees,” inter alia. Qureshi Compl., App. 35. The District Court granted American’s motion to dismiss, concluding that the University “impliedly promised, at most, to make a good-faith effort to provide on-campus education, while retaining the right to deviate from the traditional model if they reasonably deemed it necessary to do so.” Qureshi, 537 F. Supp. 3d at 22. The trial court also determined that Plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege that the University violated promises to provide services in exchange for the fees at issue. Id. at 2729. It held that Plaintiffs’ contract claims precluded their unjust enrichment claims and that, alternatively, the students failed to plausibly allege it was unjust under the circumstances for American to retain their entire tuition and fee payments. Id. at 23-25, 29. The court dismissed the conversion claim because Plaintiffs “fail[ed] to allege that they have the right to a specific identifiable fund of money.” Id. at 25-26, 29 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Finally, it dismissed the Consumer Protection Procedures Act claim, reasoning that Plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege the University made any false or misleading representations or omissions regarding its tuition or fees. Id. at 26, 29. Before this court, the Shaffer Plaintiffs renew only their breach-of-contract and unjust enrichment claims. The Qureshi Plaintiffs renew their breach-of-contract, unjust enrichment, conversion, and Consumer Protection Procedures Act claims. The American Council on Education and eighteen other higher education associations (collectively, “Amici”) filed amicus briefs supporting the Universities in both actions. 10