Domino's Pizza, Inc., et al. v. John Mcdonald (546 U.S. 470)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 22, 2006 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 546 U.S. 470 · 126 S. Ct. 1246
- Decided
- February 22, 2006
- Term
- October Term 2005
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. We decide whether a plaintiff who lacks any rights under an existing contractual relationship with the defendant, and who has not been prevented from entering into such a contractual relationship, may bring suit under Rev. Stat. § 1977, 42U.S. C. §1981. I Respondent John McDonald, a black man, is the sole shareholder and president of JWM Investments, Inc. (JWM), a corporation organized under Nevada law. He sued petitioners (collectively Domino’s) in the District Court for the District of Nevada, claiming violations of § 1981. The allegations of the complaint, which for present purposes we assume to be true, were as follows. JWM and Domino’s entered into several contracts under which JWM was to construct four restaurants in the Las Vegas aréa, which would be leased to Domino’s. After the first restaurant was completed, Domino’s agent Debbie Pear refused to execute the estoppel certificates for JWM required by the contracts to facilitate JWM’s bank financing. The relationship between the parties further deteriorated when Pear persuaded the Las Vegas Valley Water District to change its records to show Domino’s, rather than JWM, as the owner of the land JWM had acquired for restaurant construction. McDonald had to go to the Water District to prove JWM’s ownership of the land. In the course of what were apparently many and…
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