City retained ability to revoke non-consent tow permit says U.S. 5th Circuit

Rountree v. Dyson No. 17-40443 (5^thCir. June 11, 2018)

This is a 42 U.S.C. 1983 suit where the City of Beaumont removed a tow-truck company from its non-consent tow rotation list and the 5^thCircuit affirmed a dismissal in favor of the City.

Rountree owned a towing company and had been on the non-consent tow rotation list for thirty years. Police Chief James Singletary revoked Rountree’s city-issued towing permit based on a complaint by a competing tow company, which asserted—truthfully—that three of Rountree’s state-issued licenses had lapsed. Rountree did not dispute the lapse, but instead asserted the Chief persuaded the competitor to file the complaint and had targeted Rountree.  The permit is not required for all tows, just non-consent tows requested by PD. Later, Rountree was called by a former customer to help with a tow but Rountree called a permitted tow truck to help the former customer. Sergeant Troy Dyson arrived on the scene and told Rountree to leave. Rountree refused and Dyson arrested him. The charge was later dismissed. Rountree sued the City and Dyson. The trial court dismissed his claims and Rountree appealed.

First, the 5^thCircuit held that the trial court was within its discretion to dismiss the case before considering Rountree’s amended pleading. “Defendants should not be required to file a new motion to dismiss simply because an amended pleading was introduced while their motion was pending.” Rather, “[i]f some of the defects raised in the original motion remain in the new pleading, the court simply may consider the motion as being addressed to the amended pleading.” Second, class-of-one claims are inapposite “to a local government’s discretionary decision to include or not include a company on a non-consent tow list.” If a city has the discretion to choose from whom it contracts private services, then it must equally retain the discretion to choose when to terminate such relationship. Alternatively, Rountree’s equal-protection claim fails because he did not sufficiently allege that he has been treated differently from others similarly situated.Finally, Rountree was unable to overcome Dyson’s entitlement to qualified immunity. The City had a criminal ordinance requiring all tow truck operations to follow the commands of police at scenes. Since it is undisputed Rountree refused, the arrest was based on such action by Rountree and was within Sgt. Dyson’s discretion. The dismissals were affirmed.

If you would like to read this opinion click here. Panel consists of Justices Smith, Wiener and Willett. Opinion by Justice Smith. The attorney listed for Rountree is Randall Lee Kallinen.  The attorney listed for the City is Frank David Calvert.