Federal judge dismisses lawsuit challenging GRU Authority, writes that City and Authority are separate legal entities

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A federal lawsuit filed by Nath Doughtie to challenge the constitutionality of the GRU Authority has been dismissed by Judge Allen Winsor due to lack of standing. Judge Winsor held in his order that the Authority and City of Gainesville are separate legal entities “[a]s a matter of law.”

Doughtie’s complaint asked the court to provide injunctive relief to address his claim that HB 1645 violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment right to vote for the board that governs the utility; Doughtie is a retired Circuit Judge in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida and was a County Judge in Alachua County before that.

Doughtie originally sued the City of Gainesville, Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Cord Byrd, and Attorney General Ashley Moody, but he later voluntarily dismissed his claims against everyone except the City. Judge Winsor later granted Moody’s unopposed motion to intervene to defend the constitutionality of HB 1645.

Winsor wrote that Doughtie had the burden of showing standing, which required showing that he suffered an injury, that the injury could be traced to conduct of the City, and that the injury could be redressed by a favorable judicial decision. The judge accepted that Doughtie had suffered an injury because he wants to vote for the people running GRU, but he wrote that Doughtie had to show that the City’s enforcement of HB1645 causes the injury and that he did not.

Winsor wrote, “A significant problem here for Doughtie is that, as the Attorney General argues, the Authority and the City are separate legal entities.” In a note, he wrote, “The City seems to disagree with the Attorney General. As Doughtie noted, the City’s answer admitted the Authority is a unit of the City without separate legal existence… But this is a legal issue… [a]nd parties’ agreement on legal issues are not binding.”

Winsor continued, “Since the Authority is separate from the City, its actions in enforcing [HB1645] cannot be imputed to the City for standing purposes… Doughtie must show that the City enforces the specific provisions of the Act that cause his injury. He has not done that.”

Winsor also noted that the Authority would not “be bound by an injunction against the City.”

In another note, Winsor wrote, “Doughtie has not shown (or even alleged) that the orderly transition section 7.10 requires has not already occurred… So he has not shown that an injunction preventing the City from assisting in the transition would remedy his alleged injury by allowing him to vote for governing members.”

Finally, Winsor wrote that Doughtie seemed to suggest that “the court could essentially eliminate [HB1645] from Florida law. He ‘seeks an order invalidating’ [HB1645]… and thus restore his right to vote… But ‘federal courts have no authority to erase a duly enacted law from the statute books.’… Instead, courts can only enjoin Defendants ‘from taking steps to enforce a statute.'”

Winsor dismissed the lawsuit “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction” without prejudice.

GRU CEO Ed Bielarski said, “Judge Winsor makes the distinction that the GRU Authority has been repeatedly making: GRU is a department or unit of the City while the GRU Authority, like the Orlando Utilities Commission, is ‘a distinct legal entity that operates mostly independently of the City.’ Ostensibly, the GRU Authority is an entity that can sue and be sued, clearing the path for the legal complaint approved by the GRU Authority on Wednesday of last week.”

The order can be found here.