## Facts

- Detroit Will Breathe (a protest organization) and fourteen individual protesters sued the City of Detroit, the mayor, the police chief, and Detroit police officers arising from policing of 2020 protests following the killing of George Floyd.
- Plaintiffs alleged constitutional violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (including First and Fourth Amendment claims) and related state-law claims, asserting that police used force and made arrests without probable cause during largely peaceful demonstrations.
- After early injunctive proceedings, the City filed a counterclaim against the organization and the individual plaintiffs alleging a Michigan-law civil conspiracy tied to protest-related misconduct (including alleged property damage and assaults on officers).
- The counterclaim broadly described unlawful protest activity and purported coordination, including reliance on alleged statements and social-media activity, but did not clearly plead a specific underlying Michigan tort in a separate count.
- Plaintiffs moved to dismiss the counterclaim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

## Issues

1. Whether the City plausibly pleaded a Michigan civil-conspiracy claim against the protest organization and individual plaintiffs.
2. Whether the City’s allegations sufficiently identified a separate, actionable underlying tort required for Michigan civil conspiracy.
3. Whether the counterclaim alleged facts that plausibly supported an agreement among the defendants-in-counterclaim to commit tortious acts.

## Decision

- The court granted the motion to dismiss and dismissed the City’s civil-conspiracy counterclaim for failure to state a claim.
- The court held that the City did not adequately allege an underlying tort actionable under Michigan law, which is required to support a civil-conspiracy claim.
- The court also held that the counterclaim failed to allege facts plausibly showing a conspiratorial agreement among the plaintiffs, rather than protected protest advocacy or parallel participation in demonstrations.
- In a later order, the court denied reconsideration, rejecting the City’s argument that the counterclaim had adequately alleged assault and battery as the underlying tort.

## Legal Principles

- Under Michigan law, civil conspiracy is not an independent cause of action; it must be supported by a separate, actionable underlying tort.
- Allegations of criminal conduct, ordinance violations, or generalized “unlawful” protest activity do not substitute for pleading an actionable tort.
- Federal pleading standards require factual content that makes liability plausible; conclusory assertions that parties “agreed and conspired” are insufficient.
- Allegations based on rhetoric, interviews, or social-media statements may be inadequate to plead a specific agreement to commit tortious acts, particularly where the conduct described is consistent with lawful expressive activity.

## Conclusion

The court dismissed the City’s Michigan civil-conspiracy counterclaim because it did not clearly plead an actionable underlying tort and did not allege facts plausibly showing an agreement among the protest organization and individual protesters to commit tortious acts, and it later declined to reconsider that dismissal.


Detroit Will Breathe v. City of Detroit, 524 F. Supp. 3d 704 (E.D. Mich. 2021)