McDONALD v. VILLAGE OF WINNETKA (ND Ill.)
CUDAHY, Circuit Judge. This case raises the question: what could be worse than having most of your home burn down in a fire? The answer, of course, is having the rest of it burn down a couple of days later in a second fire. What would make the situation dramatically worse, however, is if the fire department determined that the second fire was intentionally set (possibly by you) and called in federal authorities to investigate, thus requiring you to invest substantial energy, time and money defending against such allegations. Such a scenario would be particularly outrageous if the fire department did not actually believe that the second fire was intentionally set but was merely trying to draw attention away from the possibility that it had been negligent in putting out the first fire. According to Charles M. McDonald of Winnetka, Illinois, this is exactly what happened to him. McDonald responded by bringing a constitutional equal protection “class of one” claim in the Northern District of Illinois against the Winnetka Fire Department, following our precedent in Olech v. Vill. of Willowbrook, 160 F.3d 386 (7th Cir. 1998), aff’d, 528 U.S. 562 (2000). After extensive discovery, and an unsuccessful motion to dismiss, the district court eventually granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed infra, we affirm the decision of the district court because McDonald, in invoking the constitution, has failed to identify someone similarly situated but treated differently.Posted by Marcia Oddi at June 17, 2004 01:45 PM