Delacruz v. Jamba Juice Company
- Gregory Woods
- 1:19-cv-10321
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Delacruz v. Jamba Juice, Judge Woods partly granted Jamba Juice’s application, skipped a pre-motion conference, and set briefing on its planned dismissal motion.
The plaintiff and Jamba Juice Company. Jamba Juice must file its anticipated motion by February 24, 2020; the plaintiff’s response and any reply have scheduled deadlines, and discovery is stayed while the court considers the motion.
What happened
Delacruz v. Jamba Juice Company concerns a proposed defense motion challenging a complaint about Jamba Juice gift cards that did not contain Braille. The opinion does not decide whether the complaint’s disability-discrimination claims are legally valid.
Jamba Juice asked for a conference before filing a motion to dismiss under federal rules concerning jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Its proposed arguments included that the gift cards were not covered places under the disability law, that other assistance might provide effective communication, and that the plaintiff lacked standing. These were arguments the company said it planned to make, not rulings by the court.
Judge Woods granted the application in part, but did not hold the requested pre-motion conference. He ordered Jamba Juice to file its motion by February 24, 2020, set deadlines for the plaintiff’s opposition and any reply, stayed discovery, and adjourned the initial pretrial conference indefinitely. The court did not rule on the anticipated motion to dismiss.
The detailed version
- Delacruz v. Jamba Juice Company · No. 1:19-cv-10321
- Gregory Woods
- Feb. 13, 2020
Background
Jamba Juice Company submitted a letter requesting a pre-motion conference under Judge Woods’s individual rules. The company said it intended to seek dismissal of the plaintiff’s November 6, 2019 complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), which concerns subject-matter jurisdiction, and Rule 12(b)(6), which concerns whether a complaint states a legally sufficient claim.
The complaint alleged that Jamba Juice’s failure to offer gift cards containing Braille violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law. The company’s letter argued that the complaint failed to state a claim and that the plaintiff lacked standing, meaning a legally sufficient connection to bring the case in federal court. The company also argued that the complaint could not be fixed by amendment and asked that it be dismissed with prejudice. These arguments were presented in a request to file a future motion; the court did not decide them in this order.
Court’s Action
The court stated that the application was granted in part. It declined to hold the requested pre-motion conference and directed Jamba Juice to submit its motion to dismiss by February 24, 2020. The plaintiff’s opposition was due three weeks after service of the motion, and any reply by Jamba Juice was due one week after service of the opposition.
The court also stayed discovery pending its decision on the anticipated motion, adjourned the initial pretrial conference indefinitely, and directed the clerk to terminate the motions pending at Docket Numbers 14 and 15. Judge Gregory H. Woods did not grant or deny the anticipated motion to dismiss, and the order did not resolve the complaint’s disability-discrimination claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.