SAN FRANCISCO — A disabled Arizona woman is suing a hotel and public accommodation, alleging disability discrimination.
Theresa Brooke of PInal County, who requires a wheelchair, filed a complaint Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Liberty Inn Bakersfield, LLC, doing business as America's Best Value Inn & Sites East Bakersfield, alleging violations of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to the complaint, this month Brooke went to defendant's hotel in East Bakersfield to book a room. The suit says while Brooke was in the parking lot she found there was no label sign displaying a van accessible for disabled persons and could not navigate from the parking spot to the access isle due to the steepness of the slope.
As a result, Brooke says she lost privileges as a disabled persons to use parking spots in compliance with 2010 standards.
The plaintiff alleges Liberty Inn Bakersfield failed to comply with the national and state standards in designing accessible parking spots for disabled persons and failed to remove architectural barriers that limit disabled individuals from full and equal access to the parking lots.
Brooke seeks trial by jury, declaratory judgment and, irrespective of voluntary cessation, order of closure until the defendant fully complies with the ADA, damages of no less than $1,000 and whatever other relief the court deems just, equitable and appropriate. She is represented by attorney Peter Kristofer Strojnik of The Strojnik Firm, LLC in Phoenix.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 1:17-cv-01637-LJO-JLT