The San Francisco 49ers and others who assist with operating Levi's Stadium can't escape a disability discrimination claim lodged by a man who claims stadium staff refused to help his elderly wheelchair bound father find an accommodating seat at a game in Santa Clara in 2023 because they had not bought a ticket for the father in a designated wheelchair seating area.
In the ruling, the judge said the 49ers can't defeat the lawsuit by arguing that the team has no obligation to help wheelchair dependent spectators find a place to sit if they haven't purchased a ticket to sit in designated wheelchair seating areas.
"Defendants argue that plaintiffs' proposed modifications are unworkable and that the (Americans with Disabilities Act) does not require them to permit a spectator to occupy a seat for which they did not purchase a ticket," Pitts wrote. "Contrary to the defendants' assertion, however, plaintiffs do not at this stage request that defendants implement a specific modification - they simply assert that defendants should have provided them with a reasonable modification in compliance with the ADA's mandate.
"Whether or not defendants were required to permit the Mayas to use the empty wheelchair seats the Mayas had identified, the ADA required them to offer Enrique Maya some reasonable accommodation to account for his wheelchair-bound status (emphasis in original). Plaintiffs allege that defendants never did so."
The lawsuit stems from mistreatment the Mayas allege they suffered at the hand of staff when they attended a 49ers game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on Dec. 10, 2023.
According to the lawsuit, Rick Maya had purchased four tickets to attend the game with his wife and two teenage sons. However, when Rick's wife could not attend the game at the "last minute," Rick invited his father, Enrique, to attend in her place.
According to court documents, Enrique Maya is 78 years old and is wheelchair dependent due to the effects of polio.
According to court documents, the Mayas ticketed seats were located seven steps up from the concourse level at the stadium and Enrique could not reach the seats.
Instead, the Mayas attempted to push his father, in his wheelchair, to an unoccupied wheelchair-designated seat on the concourse level. The Mayas did not have a ticket for this area.
Ushers at the stadium, however, refused to allow the Mayas to sit in that area without a ticket and allegedly refused to provide an alternative seating option.
Court documents indicate security only offered to allow Enrique to watch the game on a television in the concourse.
When the Mayas refused, police were summoned, and stadium security allegedly threatened to eject them from the stadium if Rick "did not stop complaining."
Facing such threats of force, the Mayas relented, and Rick and his two sons carried the elder Maya to their seats, which Enrique Maya asserted left him feeling "embarrassed," "ashamed" and "uncomfortable."
Unable to leave his seat, Enrique allegedly was forced to urinate on himself.
"This experience ... left Enrique Maya feeling humiliated and made him feel 'exposed and unwanted as a person with a disability,'" according to the complaint.
According to court documents, the wheelchair seats remained empty throughout the game.
Further, after the game, 49ers customer service allegedly reinforced the ushers' decision to deny access to wheelchair seating areas unless a ticket has been purchased to those areas.
In their complaint, the Mayas assert this policy is discriminatory, because it denies people who rely on wheelchairs the opportunity to accept an invitation to attend such sporting events "last minute," a privilege they said is open to "able bodied" fans.
In response, the 49ers argued disability access regulations don't require public venues to "permit a non-ticketed person with a disability to occupy an accessible ticketed location on demand."
Judge Pitts, however, said that argument falls short. Providing seating access to those with disabilities as required by the ADA "does not otherwise absolve defendants of their obligations under the ADA," the judge said.
"Here, plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that defendant's policy and practice deny disabled individuals 'full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations' of Levi's Stadium by conditioning the accommodation of their disability on the unique requirement to pre-purchase tickets, and this is true notwithstanding defendants' purported compliance with ADA's specific regulations regarding ticketing and accessible seating," Judge Pitts said.
The judge further said the Mayas had plausibly accused the 49ers of refusing to modify their policies to accommodate a fan with a disability.
And the judge said the Mayas may be allowed to move forward with legal claims that the 49ers retaliated against them for attempting to assert their rights under the ADA by threatening to eject them from the stadium. But he said the Mayas "will need to prove that defendants' action was a direct response to their assertion of rights and not simply to their insistence on occupying seats for which they did not have tickets, or refusal to vacate those seats, while the possibility of an alternative accommodation was being explored."
The Mayas are represented in the action by attorneys Celia McGuinness and Deborah Gettleman, of McGuinness Law Group, of Oakland.
The 49ers are represented by attorneys Maria M. Lampasona and Nima Aminian, of the firm of Rankin Shuey Mintz Lampasona & Harper, of Oakland.