Rebecca Young (Partner-Birmingham, AL) and Caroline Pennington (Associate-Birmingham, AL) secured dismissal of all claims in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama, on behalf of Wilson Elser's Housing Authority client and several of its employees. The clients were collectively alleged to have engaged in conspiracy, fraud, and racial discrimination against the plaintiff in this case, a minority business owner. The plaintiff alleged that the Housing Authority stopped awarding his company various open-bid projects after learning his business was minority-owned. His 36-page complaint detailed the number of bidding opportunities, contract awards, and payments awarded before our client allegedly discovered that his business was minority-owned, as well as various actions taken by the Housing Authority and its employees.

Rebecca and Caroline filed a dispositive motion arguing that, despite its length and factual detail, the complaint failed to state a viable claim. They demonstrated that the plaintiff did not identify which individual defendants engaged in the conduct underlying the claims, that the conspiracy allegations failed under the Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine, and that the plaintiff failed to adequately establish that race, rather than his failure to submit the lowest bids, was the reason he was not awarded the contracts. In response, the plaintiff argued that the pleading sufficiently demonstrated that he was denied an equal opportunity during the bidding process due to differences in how the Housing Authority communicated with other bidders. During oral argument, the court agreed that the pleading was insufficient to state a claim and ultimately granted an order in favor of Wilson Elser’s clients, dismissing all claims.