Court Opinion

ID: 9363075
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-13 18:00:33.995867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:30.360224
License: Public Domain

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                        FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

                                  No. 22-2245

                                 JOHN DOE 1;
      JANE DOE 1, in their own capacity and as parent of CHILD DOE 1;
JANE DOE 2, in her own capacity and as parent of CHILD DOE 2 and CHILD DOE 3;
       JANE DOE 3, in her own capacity and as parent of CHILD DOE 4
                     and on behalf of those similarly situated,
                                                      Appellants

                                       v.

  NORTH ALLEGHENY SCHOOL DISTRICT, a Pennsylvania governmental entity;
  RICHARD McCLURE; ELIZABETH BLACKBURN; MARCIE CROW; LESLIE
BRITTON DOZIER; PAIGE HARDY; KEVIN MAHLER; VIDYA SZYMKOWIAK;
ELIZABETH WERNER; SHANNON YEAKEL, all individual elected officials sued in
their official capacity as members of the NORTH ALLEGHENY SCHOOL DISTRICT
      BOARD OF DIRECTORS, a Pennsylvania elected legislative body; NORTH
             ALLEGHENY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                   for the Western District of Pennsylvania
                    (D.C. Civil Action No. 2-22-cv-00055)
                  District Judge: Honorable Marilyn J. Horan

                  Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)
                              January 11, 2023

       Before: AMBRO, GREENAWAY, JR., and KRAUSE, Circuit Judges

                        (Opinion filed: January 13, 2023)
                                      ____________

                                        OPINION *
                                      ____________

AMBRO, Circuit Judge.

       Plaintiffs-Appellants (for ease of reference, “Plaintiffs”) are school-age children and

their parents who sued to enjoin the North Allegheny School District from instituting an

optional COVID-19 masking policy in January 2022. They claimed violations of the

Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

       In connection with Plaintiffs’ complaint, they successfully obtained a temporary

restraining order (TRO) from the District Court that preserved the Parties’ status quo

pending a decision on the merits. Thereafter, the School District filed an interlocutory

appeal with us. But before we could consider the merits of the appeal (much less render a

decision), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published revised

guidance for COVID-19 mitigation measures.           We concluded that guidance mooted

Plaintiffs’ claims. As such, we dismissed their appeal and directed the District Court on

remand to dismiss their complaint without prejudice. Following dismissal on remand,

Plaintiffs motioned the District Court for attorneys’ fees and costs. See 42 U.S.C. § 12205;

29 U.S.C. § 794a. It denied that request, ruling that they were not prevailing parties entitled

to statutory relief. We agree.

*
 This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
constitute binding precedent.

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      Plaintiffs have not obtained a “judgment on the merits” or a “court-ordered consent

decree.” Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W. Va. Dep't of Health & Hum. Res., 532

U.S. 598, 605 (2001). This case also does not present the “rare situation where a merits-

based determination is made at the injunction stage.” Singer Mgmt. Consultants, Inc. v.

Milgram, 650 F.3d 223, 229 (3d Cir. 2011) (en banc) (citing People Against Police

Violence v. City of Pittsburgh, 520 F.3d 226, 229 (3d Cir. 2008)). The District Court’s

ephemeral TRO was fashioned to facilitate the “prompt scheduling of discovery and an

evidentiary hearing on the merits.” J.A. 08 (Op. 5). Yet no discovery or evidentiary

hearing ever occurred. Not long after the TRO was entered, the Parties’ dispute was

resolved by the CDC’s “nonjudicial alteration of actual circumstances,” a situation that

does not call for an award of attorneys’ fees or costs.   Buckhannon, 532 U.S. at 606

(cleaned up).

      Because Plaintiffs achieved none of the outcomes that warrant the relief they seek,

we affirm.

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