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Second Lemoore business hit with ADA lawsuit
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PLANNING INFORMATIONAL WORKSHOP
http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/lemoore/second-lemoore-business-hit-with-ada-lawsuit/article_5e564fc0-9d4c-5244-a94a-6ed989671242.html
LEMOORE — The Lemoore Chamber of Commerce is planning its next steps after another business was served with an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit this week.
Eduardo Zuniga, owner of the White Top Restaurant on D Street near 19th Avenue, said he learned about the lawsuit against his business on Monday. The restaurant has been a fixture in Lemoore since 1967.
White Top is the second Lemoore business to get hit with an ADA lawsuit in the past few weeks. The nearby Best Buy Market and the surrounding Lincoln Center shopping center at Bush Street and 19th Avenue were served with a complaint last month.
Aguiniga v. Zuniga et al CLICK LINK
http://hanfordsentinel.com/aguiniga-v-zuniga-et-al/pdf_943b522b-90b8-51de-bc56-35a34e9f07c3.html
Lemoore Chamber of Commerce CEO Jenny MacMurdo said Zuniga visited the chamber office Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue. The chamber sent out an email alert shortly after to inform business owners about the new lawsuit and to encourage them to take preventative action.
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 2 by Kings County resident Angel Aguiniga. Aguiniga is being represented by the San Jose-based Moore Law Firm, the same firm representing plaintiffs in about 16 other ADA lawsuits filed against Kings County businesses this year.
According to the complaint, Aguiniga is “substantially limited in his ability to walk” and relies on a wheelchair for mobility. The complaint says Aguiniga lives in the “general vicinity” of the White Top Restaurant, attends school nearby and visits the area regularly.
During an Aug. 11 visit to the restaurant, Aguiniga claims he encountered the following accessibility issues:
Entrance door was too heavy, requiring Aguiniga’s wife to hold it open while he maneuvered his wheelchair through the door
Transaction counter was improperly configured, making it difficult for Aguiniga to pay for his meal
Doorway to the restroom was not wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through it, which required Aguiniga to wait until he found a restroom elsewhere
The walkway leading to the restroom was too narrow, forcing Aguiniga to wheel off the curb to turn around and go back to the restaurant.
Zuniga said he was meeting with an attorney on Wednesday and is looking into how to fix the issues raised in the lawsuit. He said that although he has a number of regular customers who are disabled and rely on wheelchairs, this is the first time anyone has informed him that the restaurant had any accessibility issues.
“We’re working on it,” Zuniga said.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 seeks to stop discrimination and ensure equal opportunities for disabled people with regards to employment, government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities and transportation.
Zuniga said his business made a number of ADA improvements about five or six years ago when he remodeled the restaurant’s drive-thru. Those improvements included widening the front door. Any time alterations are made to a building that still has accessibility barriers, ADA law requires 20 percent of the construction costs to be spent on removing those barriers.
The chamber and the city co-hosted an ADA compliance workshop on Sept. 16. That event was not as well-attended as an Aug. 5 workshop that was held in Hanford, where more than a dozen ADA lawsuits had been filed.
At that time, no Lemoore businesses had been sued for ADA violations. The chamber is preparing to hold another workshop to help businesses avoid further lawsuits.
“It’s still in the works,” MacMurdo said. “All the [chamber] board members want to do another one. We just have to pick a date.”
A search of the U.S. Eastern District Court of California did not reveal any additional cases in Lemoore. MacMurdo said she isn’t aware of any other Lemoore businesses facing ADA lawsuits.
About seven of the 17 lawsuits filed against Kings County businesses have already been resolved.
Unlike the plaintiffs in the other Kings County cases, Aguiniga does not appear to have filed any other ADA complaints with the Eastern District Court.
According to the court, the plaintiff in all of the Hanford cases has filed more than 50 lawsuits this year. The plaintiff in the Best Buy Market case, plus one case in Corcoran, has filed about 30 ADA lawsuits this year.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PLANNING INFORMATIONAL WORKSHOP
http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/lemoore/second-lemoore-business-hit-with-ada-lawsuit/article_5e564fc0-9d4c-5244-a94a-6ed989671242.html
LEMOORE — The Lemoore Chamber of Commerce is planning its next steps after another business was served with an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit this week.
Eduardo Zuniga, owner of the White Top Restaurant on D Street near 19th Avenue, said he learned about the lawsuit against his business on Monday. The restaurant has been a fixture in Lemoore since 1967.
White Top is the second Lemoore business to get hit with an ADA lawsuit in the past few weeks. The nearby Best Buy Market and the surrounding Lincoln Center shopping center at Bush Street and 19th Avenue were served with a complaint last month.
Aguiniga v. Zuniga et al CLICK LINK
http://hanfordsentinel.com/aguiniga-v-zuniga-et-al/pdf_943b522b-90b8-51de-bc56-35a34e9f07c3.html
Lemoore Chamber of Commerce CEO Jenny MacMurdo said Zuniga visited the chamber office Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue. The chamber sent out an email alert shortly after to inform business owners about the new lawsuit and to encourage them to take preventative action.
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 2 by Kings County resident Angel Aguiniga. Aguiniga is being represented by the San Jose-based Moore Law Firm, the same firm representing plaintiffs in about 16 other ADA lawsuits filed against Kings County businesses this year.
According to the complaint, Aguiniga is “substantially limited in his ability to walk” and relies on a wheelchair for mobility. The complaint says Aguiniga lives in the “general vicinity” of the White Top Restaurant, attends school nearby and visits the area regularly.
During an Aug. 11 visit to the restaurant, Aguiniga claims he encountered the following accessibility issues:
Entrance door was too heavy, requiring Aguiniga’s wife to hold it open while he maneuvered his wheelchair through the door
Transaction counter was improperly configured, making it difficult for Aguiniga to pay for his meal
Doorway to the restroom was not wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through it, which required Aguiniga to wait until he found a restroom elsewhere
The walkway leading to the restroom was too narrow, forcing Aguiniga to wheel off the curb to turn around and go back to the restaurant.
Zuniga said he was meeting with an attorney on Wednesday and is looking into how to fix the issues raised in the lawsuit. He said that although he has a number of regular customers who are disabled and rely on wheelchairs, this is the first time anyone has informed him that the restaurant had any accessibility issues.
“We’re working on it,” Zuniga said.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 seeks to stop discrimination and ensure equal opportunities for disabled people with regards to employment, government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities and transportation.
Zuniga said his business made a number of ADA improvements about five or six years ago when he remodeled the restaurant’s drive-thru. Those improvements included widening the front door. Any time alterations are made to a building that still has accessibility barriers, ADA law requires 20 percent of the construction costs to be spent on removing those barriers.
The chamber and the city co-hosted an ADA compliance workshop on Sept. 16. That event was not as well-attended as an Aug. 5 workshop that was held in Hanford, where more than a dozen ADA lawsuits had been filed.
At that time, no Lemoore businesses had been sued for ADA violations. The chamber is preparing to hold another workshop to help businesses avoid further lawsuits.
“It’s still in the works,” MacMurdo said. “All the [chamber] board members want to do another one. We just have to pick a date.”
A search of the U.S. Eastern District Court of California did not reveal any additional cases in Lemoore. MacMurdo said she isn’t aware of any other Lemoore businesses facing ADA lawsuits.
About seven of the 17 lawsuits filed against Kings County businesses have already been resolved.
Unlike the plaintiffs in the other Kings County cases, Aguiniga does not appear to have filed any other ADA complaints with the Eastern District Court.
According to the court, the plaintiff in all of the Hanford cases has filed more than 50 lawsuits this year. The plaintiff in the Best Buy Market case, plus one case in Corcoran, has filed about 30 ADA lawsuits this year.
