Tire Town Auto LLC v. Wood County

── Tire Town Auto LLC v. Wood County ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Date: May 12, 2026 Category: General In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-1883 TIRE TOWN AUTO LLC, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WOOD COUNTY, Defendant-Appellee. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. No. 3:24-cv-00282-wmc — William M. Conley, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED DECEMBER 9, 2025 — DECIDED MAY 12, 2026 ____________________ Before HAMILTON, ST. EVE, and PRYOR, Circuit Judges. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Tire Town Auto LLC operates towing services in Wood County, Wisconsin. For years, Wood County included Tire Town on a list of towing businesses that were available on a rotating basis to recover vehicles on public roads. After fielding complaints about Tire Town, Wood County removed it from the list. Tire Town filed this suit complaining that Wood County violated its procedural due process rights. The district court dismissed 2 No. 25-1883 Tire Town’s case because it did not plausibly allege that it had a protected property interest in a spot on Wood County’s towing rotation list. We agree and affirm the district court’s judgment. I. Factual Allegations and Procedural History We review de novo a district court’s decision to dismiss on the pleadings. Ratfield v. U.S. Drug Testing Laboratories, Inc., 140 F.4th 849, 851 (7th Cir. 2025). We accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true, drawing all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, but we need not accept alleged conclusions of law. Yash Venture Holdings, LLC v. Moca Financial, Inc., 116 F.4th 651, 656 (7th Cir. 2024); Oakland Police & Fire Retirement System v. Mayer Brown, LLP, 861 F.3d 644, 649 (7th Cir. 2017). We may also consider, as we do here, documents attached to the complaint as part of the pleadings. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(c). Defendant Wood County operates a dispatch center for the county’s emergency services. Among its responsibilities, the dispatch center arranges for the removal of disabled vehicles from roads in the county. It does so by dispatching a towing service from a list of private towing businesses that say they are ready, willing, and able to remove disabled vehicles. Being on the list can be a financial benefit for towing companies. The company contacted by the county dispatcher can charge the vehicle’s owner for the costs of a tow, typically holding the vehicle until payment is made. Wood County maintains a policy (which we call the Minimum Standards policy) for businesses on the towing rotation list. The county requires, for example, that towing companies be available to recover vehicles 24/7 and that they No. 25-1883 3 maintain a minimum amount of liability insurance. Notably for this appeal, the Minimum Standards policy asserts that it is not a contract between Wood County and any towing businesses. Per the policy: “This application and parent policy do not constitute a contract or agreement between the Dispatch Center, Wood County, and/or the applicant [towing business].” Plaintiff Tire Town offers towing services in Marshfield, Wisconsin, a town that straddles Wood County and Marathon County. Tire Town had been listed on Wood County’s towing rotation list for a number of years. (The complaint does not include precise dates.) Tire Town alleges that in September 2021, Wood County received reports that some Tire Town employees had not been wearing reflective vests, in violation of the Minimum Standards policy, and the county warned Tire Town that any further infractions could lead to Tire Town’s removal from the towing rotation list. Not long afte