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Telluride businesses included in wave of ADA lawsuits
http://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_16ef7e7e-13cf-11e6-a581-9f486f089a36.html
Two Telluride businesses are among dozens included in lawsuits filed by a Florida man in U.S. District Court in Denver alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Santiago Abreu, a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, filed complaints against TEX Restaurant Group/Brown Dog Handcrafted Pizza and The Butcher and the Baker, LLC on April 26, after visits to both businesses on March 15 of this year and July 1 of last year.
When contacted by the Daily Planet, both Jeff Smokevitch, co-owner of Brown Dog, and Megan Ossola, co-owner of the Butcher and the Baker, said they had no knowledge of the suits. After contacting legal counsel, Smokevitch declined to comment for this story.
The complaints allege that the bathrooms at the Butcher and the Baker do not meet ADA standards, pathways are uneven, and countertops are too high, among other allegations. The complaints are similar about Brown Dog.
Abreu has “moderately severe multiple sclerosis and he is also paraparetic,” the lawsuits state. Because of his medical conditions, the plaintiff visits Colorado twice a year to obtain “certain medical treatments…that are not otherwise available” to him in Florida. The complaints include receipts from Abreu’s visits to the two Telluride eateries.
In the complaint, Abreu claims he is a tester “for the purpose of discovering, encountering and engaging discrimination against the disabled in public accommodations.”
Town of Telluride Building Official Sam Samuelson, who has held that position for 17 years, said he’s been “warning people for years” that they were out of compliance with the ADA. He added that he was surprised to hear the Butcher and the Baker was cited, given that the building went through a building code review and consultation prior to its significant remodel in 2014.
When other buildings and businesses change hands, Samuelson said, the new owners sometimes ask him what is the most amount of work they can do to the space without getting a building permit, thus exempting them from a review pertaining to handicap accessibility from the town building department.
Another issue in Telluride, Samuelson said, is the preponderance of historical structures that must follow the town’s historical codes, which are often at odds with ADA regulations.
“There’s a push and pull between the different codes,” Samuelson said. “Handicap access, on main street especially, is a big deal. The sidewalks, you can’t change them. The building is where it is; we can’t move it. For an entrance, you need a ramp, but sometimes there’s no way to do it.”
Several of the cases against Durango businesses are further along. One business owner who settled a lawsuit with Abreu called it “horrible,” “gut-wrenching” and “disgusting” that a claimant “would act that way,” in an interview with the Durango Herald.
An attorney for another Durango business hit by a suit told the newspaper, “It’s really using the legal system in a manner for which the legal system was not intended. For instance, here, to extract attorney fees rather than remedy all the wrongs.”
The complaints request that the court order the businesses to alter their facilities to comply with ADA, alter their policies toward disabled people, award “reasonable attorney’s fees” and expenses, and “further relief as it may deem necessary.”
Abreu’s Colorado attorney, Brett Huff of Edgewater, did not return a voicemail requesting comment.
http://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_16ef7e7e-13cf-11e6-a581-9f486f089a36.html
Two Telluride businesses are among dozens included in lawsuits filed by a Florida man in U.S. District Court in Denver alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Santiago Abreu, a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, filed complaints against TEX Restaurant Group/Brown Dog Handcrafted Pizza and The Butcher and the Baker, LLC on April 26, after visits to both businesses on March 15 of this year and July 1 of last year.
When contacted by the Daily Planet, both Jeff Smokevitch, co-owner of Brown Dog, and Megan Ossola, co-owner of the Butcher and the Baker, said they had no knowledge of the suits. After contacting legal counsel, Smokevitch declined to comment for this story.
The complaints allege that the bathrooms at the Butcher and the Baker do not meet ADA standards, pathways are uneven, and countertops are too high, among other allegations. The complaints are similar about Brown Dog.
Abreu has “moderately severe multiple sclerosis and he is also paraparetic,” the lawsuits state. Because of his medical conditions, the plaintiff visits Colorado twice a year to obtain “certain medical treatments…that are not otherwise available” to him in Florida. The complaints include receipts from Abreu’s visits to the two Telluride eateries.
In the complaint, Abreu claims he is a tester “for the purpose of discovering, encountering and engaging discrimination against the disabled in public accommodations.”
Town of Telluride Building Official Sam Samuelson, who has held that position for 17 years, said he’s been “warning people for years” that they were out of compliance with the ADA. He added that he was surprised to hear the Butcher and the Baker was cited, given that the building went through a building code review and consultation prior to its significant remodel in 2014.
When other buildings and businesses change hands, Samuelson said, the new owners sometimes ask him what is the most amount of work they can do to the space without getting a building permit, thus exempting them from a review pertaining to handicap accessibility from the town building department.
Another issue in Telluride, Samuelson said, is the preponderance of historical structures that must follow the town’s historical codes, which are often at odds with ADA regulations.
“There’s a push and pull between the different codes,” Samuelson said. “Handicap access, on main street especially, is a big deal. The sidewalks, you can’t change them. The building is where it is; we can’t move it. For an entrance, you need a ramp, but sometimes there’s no way to do it.”
Several of the cases against Durango businesses are further along. One business owner who settled a lawsuit with Abreu called it “horrible,” “gut-wrenching” and “disgusting” that a claimant “would act that way,” in an interview with the Durango Herald.
An attorney for another Durango business hit by a suit told the newspaper, “It’s really using the legal system in a manner for which the legal system was not intended. For instance, here, to extract attorney fees rather than remedy all the wrongs.”
The complaints request that the court order the businesses to alter their facilities to comply with ADA, alter their policies toward disabled people, award “reasonable attorney’s fees” and expenses, and “further relief as it may deem necessary.”
Abreu’s Colorado attorney, Brett Huff of Edgewater, did not return a voicemail requesting comment.