# Judge blasts serial ADA lawsuit filer



## mark handler (Nov 19, 2016)

Judge blasts serial ADA lawsuit filer

Comfort Inn settles case involving spa accessibility
http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/loc...cle_4f6d21ca-b745-5c56-b6d6-3dffc285d4cf.html

HANFORD — A local hotel has settled a lawsuit filed by an Arizona woman who alleged its spa was not handicapped accessible, despite the fact that the woman never visited the hotel.

Theresa Brooke, a resident of Pinal County, Arizona, filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Eastern District Court of California on Oct. 10. Brooke allegedly called the Comfort Inn Hanford to book a room for “personal and business affairs in the Central Valley.” She reportedly filed the lawsuit after learning the hotel’s spa does not have a handicapped lift.

According to court filings, Hanford Investors Inc., which owns the Comfort Inn Hanford, settled the lawsuit on Nov. 2. Comfort Inn Hanford owner Thebaji Odedra declined to comment on the details of the settlement.

“It is being taken care of,” Odedra said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 seeks to prevent discrimination and ensure equal opportunities for disabled people. According to the lawsuit, Brooke is confined to a wheelchair due to a missing leg.

ADA requires public facilities built or altered after March 15, 2012, to provide wheelchair access for swimming pools. Pools built before that date must be made accessible when it can be “readily” achieved.

The Comfort Inn was built in 2000 and opened in 2001. Odedra previously told The Sentinel the hotel’s swimming pool has a lift, and he believed the facility complied with ADA.

Brooke’s lawsuit sought a court order requiring the facility to make all its pool facilities ADA compliant, as well as attorney fees, legal costs and damages of at least $12,500.

Reached by email Wednesday, Brooke’s Phoenix-based attorney, Peter Strojnik, said the terms of the settlement are confidential. Strojnik declined to comment on the settlement and asked The Sentinel not to contact him further.

Federal court Judge Jennifer Thurston issued an order on Oct. 26 asking Brooke to show why the Comfort Inn lawsuit, along with 29 similar cases Brooke has filed with the Eastern District Court, should not be dismissed. The other cases involve hotels in cities including Fresno, Clovis, Visalia and Tulare.

Thurston criticized Brooke for claiming the hotels’ swimming pool facilities were not accessible, despite the fact that she did not personally visit them. In each of the 30 cases, Thurston said, Brooke contacted the hotels to book a room and asked if the hotel’s pool and spa had a pool lift or other means of access for a disabled person.

After learning that the hotels did not have lifts for their spas, Brooke reportedly followed up by sending an ADA expert to verify the information.

“Because plaintiff did not stay at — or even visit — the hotels,” Thurston wrote, “and did not personally encounter the alleged barriers, it appears [Brooke] lacks standing … to pursue her claims for violations of the ADA.”

Thurston’s Oct. 26 order gave Brooke two weeks to prove legal grounds for the lawsuits.

Brooke’s attorney requested an additional two weeks due to a medical issue involving his wife. Thurston granted the extension, but threatened to impose monetary sanctions against Brooke for “making false allegations.”

“However, in larger part, she claims she needs time to now visit each of the locations in order to establish [legal] standing,” Thurston wrote. “In doing so, impliedly, [Brooke] admits that the claims she made in her complaints … was untrue.”

Various media outlets have reported  that Brooke filed hundreds of similar lawsuits against hotels in Arizona and California over the past two years.


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## ICE (Nov 20, 2016)

Donald Trump owns hotels and he dislikes stupid regulations so hopefully he will implement changes to the ADA that will curtail blatant theft.


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## mark handler (Nov 20, 2016)

ICE said:


> Donald Trump owns hotels and he dislikes stupid regulations so hopefully he will implement changes to the ADA that will curtail blatant theft.


Won't happen in most states.
CA and Florida, as well as other states, have their own access laws. So even if ADA is thrown out we will still have the laws and lawsuits.

Time to put on the big boy pants and accept it as law.


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## ICE (Nov 20, 2016)

mark handler said:


> Won't happen in most states.
> CA and Florida, as well as other states, have their own access laws. So even if ADA is thrown out we will still have the laws and lawsuits.
> 
> Time to put on the big boy pants and accept it as law.


That's not a healthy attitude.


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## conarb (Nov 20, 2016)

mark handler said:


> Won't happen in most states.
> CA and Florida, as well as other states, have their own access laws. So even if ADA is thrown out we will still have the laws and lawsuits.
> 
> Time to put on the big boy pants and accept it as law.



If Trump is really serious about cutting regulations the way to do it is cut funding to states that fail to go along, if he withdraws from the climate agreements he then eliminates all tax credits and funding to states with Energy and Green Codes, California is dependent on federal grants and would go into economic collapse if all federal funding is withdrawn.  Look at what will happen to electric cars and solar panels if federal funding and tax credits are withdrawn, they wouldn't exist without subsidies, the good news is that Tiger won't have to inspect the crummy work around them.


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## mark handler (Nov 21, 2016)

I believe that the government is slowly taking away our rights. They are becoming more and more strict about* guns.*

Now, substitute the word *accessibility *for guns. Right now people have the equal right to access. Upheld by the Supreme Court. Some propose removing the rights of others for their own personal gain.


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## Rick18071 (Nov 21, 2016)

If Trump said he will take care of the veterans wouldn't that mean the disabled ones too and would want the ADA?


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## conarb (Nov 21, 2016)

mark handler said:


> I believe that the government is slowly taking away our rights. They are becoming more and more strict about* guns.*
> 
> Now, substitute the word *accessibility *for guns. Right now people have the equal right to access. Upheld by the Supreme Court. Some propose removing the rights of others for their own personal gain.



Not analogous at all, the right to bear arms is in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the only way to get rid of it is to amend the Constitution.  Accessibility is not a constitutional right but stems from a law passed by Congress, the only way to get rid of it is to change the law.  Most people don't have a problem with the law, the problem arises when various government agencies write regulations interpreting the law, those regulations are written by political agencies, in the case of accessibility the regulations were written by the Department of Justice, with every and any change of presidential administrations it is the prqactice of all heads of agencies to tender their resignations to the new President, being political positions the new President almost always accepts the resignation and appoints a new head, in this case a new Attorney General to head an all new Department of Justice.  The same thing happens at the other alphabet soup agencies like the EPA, FDA, and DE.

Once a new Attorney General is appointed he usually 'cleans house' by terminating the existing political hires and appointing his own, at some point they review regulations and add, revise, or eliminate them.  That is obviously a lot of work so most are left in place through changing administrations and only a few are revised or eliminated.  There is a huge difference here, if Trump does what he promised he will 'drain the swamp' of all government employees and all lobbyists that are paid by special interests to affect the outcome of the regulations, in this case Trump has also pledged to drastically reduce regulations , this is a huge issue because during the Obama administrations we have had two corrupt Attorneys General, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch (Lynch refused to prosecute outright criminals like Hillary Clinton when her FBI Director gave the entire nation a list of her violations of the law (not just regulations like you deal with), Trump's new Attorney General will assign new staff to review and recommend, retention, revision, or elimination of all regulations, with the announced intent to eliminate regulations we can only hope that the vast number of confusing ADA regulations will be eliminated and replaced with more reasonable regulations.  
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
  Here is a list of the regulations written by several administrations.
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## mark handler (Nov 21, 2016)

Rick18071 said:


> If Trump said he will take care of the veterans wouldn't that mean the disabled ones too and would want the ADA?


Nope. Throw out the baby with the bath water....


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