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SAWHORSE
a Ninth Circuit panel (Friedman, Nelson, Reinhardt) has ruled that the “Chipotle Experience” at Chipotle Mexican Grill, in which customers can watch their food being made behind a glass partition, violates the ADA “because the restaurants’ 45-inch counters are too high. The company now faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.” [AP, Reuters, decision in Antoninetti v. Chipotle courtesy Leagle].
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc violated a U.S. disability law by making the walls between customers and food-preparation counters in its restaurants too high, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.
A panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the 45-inch walls violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because Chipotle did not provide disabled customers with an experience "equivalent" to what non-disabled customers enjoy in being able to watch employees assemble burritos and tacos.
In ruling for Maurizio Antoninetti, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed a district court finding that Chipotle complied with the 20-year-old law in two southern California restaurants by providing alternatives, such as showing a customer a small sample of food in a spoon or assembling meals elsewhere.
It also said the district court properly rejected Chipotle's argument that because the area where customers pay is just 34 inches high, the set-up complied with a disability act requirement that "a portion of the main counter" or an "auxiliary counter" have a maximum height of 36 inches.
The wall prevents customers in wheelchairs "from having the experience of non-disabled customers of fully participating in the selection and preparation of their order," Judge Daniel Friedman wrote for the panel. "The presence of the wall in the two restaurants significantly reduced Antoninetti's ability to enjoy the 'Chipotle experience.'"
It is unclear how many of Denver-based Chipotle's roughly 1,000 restaurants have high dividing walls.
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said in an email that the company has retrofitted its California restaurants with a new counter design, and incorporated that design in new restaurants and all "major updates" of existing restaurants.
"It's a huge success for people with disabilities," said Amy Vandeveld, the lawyer for Antoninetti, in an interview. "Chipotle could have designed the counters in the first instance without the barriers but didn't because it was aesthetically inconsistent. I can't think of anything it can do to provide access to people in wheelchairs, short of lowering the wall."
The appeals court returned the case to the district court to consider injunctive relief. It also vacated Antoninetti's $136,538 award for attorney's fees, one-fourth of what he requested, and ordered the district court to set a new amount based on his now greater success on the merits.
Shares of Chipotle closed Monday up $3.07, or 2.1 percent, at $148.57 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The case is Antoninetti v. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 08-55867, 08-55946, 09-55327 and 09-55425.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Gary Hill and Steve Orlofsky)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc violated a U.S. disability law by making the walls between customers and food-preparation counters in its restaurants too high, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.
A panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the 45-inch walls violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because Chipotle did not provide disabled customers with an experience "equivalent" to what non-disabled customers enjoy in being able to watch employees assemble burritos and tacos.
In ruling for Maurizio Antoninetti, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed a district court finding that Chipotle complied with the 20-year-old law in two southern California restaurants by providing alternatives, such as showing a customer a small sample of food in a spoon or assembling meals elsewhere.
It also said the district court properly rejected Chipotle's argument that because the area where customers pay is just 34 inches high, the set-up complied with a disability act requirement that "a portion of the main counter" or an "auxiliary counter" have a maximum height of 36 inches.
The wall prevents customers in wheelchairs "from having the experience of non-disabled customers of fully participating in the selection and preparation of their order," Judge Daniel Friedman wrote for the panel. "The presence of the wall in the two restaurants significantly reduced Antoninetti's ability to enjoy the 'Chipotle experience.'"
It is unclear how many of Denver-based Chipotle's roughly 1,000 restaurants have high dividing walls.
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said in an email that the company has retrofitted its California restaurants with a new counter design, and incorporated that design in new restaurants and all "major updates" of existing restaurants.
"It's a huge success for people with disabilities," said Amy Vandeveld, the lawyer for Antoninetti, in an interview. "Chipotle could have designed the counters in the first instance without the barriers but didn't because it was aesthetically inconsistent. I can't think of anything it can do to provide access to people in wheelchairs, short of lowering the wall."
The appeals court returned the case to the district court to consider injunctive relief. It also vacated Antoninetti's $136,538 award for attorney's fees, one-fourth of what he requested, and ordered the district court to set a new amount based on his now greater success on the merits.
Shares of Chipotle closed Monday up $3.07, or 2.1 percent, at $148.57 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The case is Antoninetti v. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 08-55867, 08-55946, 09-55327 and 09-55425.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Gary Hill and Steve Orlofsky)
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