SAN DIEGO — A disabled man who requires a wheelchair for mobility is suing a Lemon Grove automobile repair shop, alleging disability discrimination.
Karel Spikes filed a complaint Feb. 22 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against Kevin Graves, doing business as SMOG or Tune, Trinh Tung doing business as MT Auto Repair, and Does 1 through 10, alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
According to the complaint, on Nov. 6, 2017, Spikes went to the defendants' facility on Broadway in Lemon Grove to check his vehicle for smog compliance. Spikes says he was denied full and equal access to the facilities owned and operated by defendants because the property was inaccessible to members of the disabled community who use wheelchairs for mobility like himself.
Spikes alleges the barriers included lack of a van-accessible parking space and lack of an accessible path of travel to the goods and services offered by the facility.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to fulfill their duties to provide full and equal access for people with disabilities that has caused disabled persons to suffer deprivation of civil rights as well as other injuries.
Spikes seeks trial by jury, actual, special and/or statutory damages between $1,000 and $4,000, punitive and exemplary damages, attorney fees, court costs, and all other relief the court deems proper. He is represented by attrorney Thomas J. Vandeveld, III of Vandeveld Law Offices in Bonita.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California case number 3:18-cv-00412-GPC-KSC