Johnson v. Noelani's LLC

Background

Scott Johnson brought a disability-access lawsuit against Noelani’s LLC. Johnson uses a wheelchair for mobility and alleged that the company’s restaurant lacked wheelchair-accessible outside dining surfaces, including surfaces with insufficient knee or toe clearance and others that were too low. His complaint asserted claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Peter Tarantino filed and signed the defendant’s motion to dismiss while proceeding without a lawyer. The opinion says Tarantino’s relationship to Noelani’s LLC was unspecified, and no lawyer had appeared for the company.

Court’s Reasoning

The court held that a limited liability company is a business entity that cannot be represented in court by an individual proceeding without a lawyer. Under the cited federal rule, a written motion must be signed by an attorney of record or, if the party is unrepresented, by the party personally. Because Tarantino signed the motion for the company and was not its attorney, the motion was not properly before the court.

Ruling

The court ordered that Noelani’s LLC’s motion to dismiss be stricken without prejudice to refiling by retained counsel. It also stayed the action for 30 days to give the company an opportunity to retain counsel. The opinion’s discussion says that the motion “is denied,” but the stated disposition and conclusion say that it is “stricken without prejudice”; this summary follows the operative conclusion. The order was signed by Richard Seeborg for Saundra Armstrong.