SACRAMENTO — A paraplegic man who requires a wheelchair for mobility is suing the owners of a Kettleman City Starbucks store, alleging disability discrimination, failure to uphold Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations and violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
Luis Villegas, who has filed other disability discrimination suits, filed a complaint Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against KC Prop LLC, Starbucks Corporation and Does 1-10, alleging failure to provide full and safe equal access to its facilities.
According to the complaint, in December 2017, Villegas went to the defendants' coffee shop at 33300 Bernard Drive, Kettleman City. The suit says Villegas was denied full and equal access to the Starbucks facilities and was subjected to difficulty and frustration from the parking stalls and access aisles that were not level and have slopes greater than 2.1 percent against ADA standards.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to maintain in working and usable conditions the facilities required to provide ready access to persons with disabilities, and failed to make reasonable modifications in policies, practices or procedures to afford goods, services or accommodations to individuals with disabilities.
Villegas seeks trial by jury, actual damages and a statutory minimum of $4,000, injunctive relief, attorney fees, litigation expenses and costs of suit. He is represented by attorney Isabel Masanque of Center for Disability Access in San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California case number 18-cv-274