Orlando Partner Therese Savona recently received a favorable opinion from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in a civil rights case involving allegations of discrimination based on religion.
The plaintiff sued a gym based on the gym’s mask mandate from December 2020 on the basis the gym failed to accommodate plaintiff’s sincerely held religious objection to the mask mandate. The gym moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim which was granted by the district court.
The plaintiff also moved for sanctions against the gym based on its arguments in the motion to dismiss which was denied by the district court. However, the district court denied this request and sanctioned the plaintiff, a recent law school graduate, by requiring the plaintiff to read the ethical rules. The district court also denied plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend his complaint as futile.
The Eleventh Circuit agreed the dismissal of the complaint was appropriate, that the plaintiff should not be provided leave to amend, and that the plaintiff was not entitled to a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The appellate court also agreed with the district court that plaintiff’s motion for sanctions was frivolous and the district court correctly deny the motion for sanctions against the gym.
Therese Savona
therese.savona@csklegal.com
(321) 972-0071
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