Toro v. Black Sheep Enterprise, Inc.
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:23-cv-02268
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Toro v. Black Sheep Enterprise, Judge Caproni required an amended standing allegation or dismissal without prejudice and struck a filing from another case.
Andrew Toro and Black Sheep Enterprise, Inc.; the order also removed a filing concerning Jovan Campbell from this case’s record.
What happened
Andrew Toro sued Black Sheep Enterprise, Inc., claiming that its website was inaccessible to visually impaired people in violation of federal, state, and city disability laws.
The court previously found that Toro had not adequately alleged standing, meaning a sufficient connection to sue in federal court. Toro later filed a settlement notice seeking to pause deadlines, and another filing concerned a different plaintiff and case.
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Toro to ask for permission to amend the complaint with adequate standing allegations by May 5, 2023. Otherwise, the action would be dismissed without prejudice for lack of standing. The judge also struck the filing concerning the different case from the record.
The detailed version
- Toro v. Black Sheep Enterprise, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-02268
- Valerie Caproni
- May 1, 2023
Background
Andrew Toro brought this putative class action against Black Sheep Enterprise, Inc. He alleged that the company’s website was not accessible to visually impaired persons, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law.
On April 24, 2023, the Court ordered Toro to move for permission to amend the complaint because he had not adequately alleged standing. Standing is the required connection between a plaintiff and the alleged injury that allows the plaintiff to bring a case in federal court.
Settlement Filing and Jurisdiction
On April 27, 2023, Toro filed a notice of settlement seeking a stay of all deadlines. The opinion also notes that his counsel filed a separate notice of settlement at docket entry 8, but that filing concerned a purported settlement involving a plaintiff named Jovan Campbell.
Because Toro had not adequately alleged standing, the Court stated that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the case. The Court therefore stated that it could dismiss the action only without prejudice, meaning the dismissal would not bar a later filing based on the same matter.
Order
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Toro to move for leave to amend the complaint to adequately allege standing no later than May 5, 2023. The order states that the action would be dismissed without prejudice for lack of standing if he did not do so. The Court also ordered that docket entry 8 be stricken from the record because it pertained to an entirely different case. The order itself set the deadline and did not dismiss the action at that time.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.