Three cases in the last thirty days look at ADA standing and reach different conclusions about what the Constitution and the ADA require. For victims of serial litigation and for courts interested in the coherent application of the text of the ADA and similar statutes these are crucial cases.² More
ADA Title II
ADA and FHA Quick Hits – Day that will live in infamy edition
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - Hotels, ADA - serial litigation, ADA - Standing, ADA Internet, ADA Internet Web, ADA Theaters, ADA Web Access Tags: ADA arbitration, ADA defense, ADA Title II, ADA website, Bird scooters, electric scooters, FHA Defense, Strojnik, uber
Before delving into the fascinating details of ADA and FHA legal developments it doesn’t hurt to remember that in the larger scheme of things the day-to-day problems caused by flaws in the ADA and FHA are not as earth shattering as we like to imagine.
Cities may be responsible for the carelessness of the public
Another ADA case heads to the Supreme Court – City of Trinidad v Hamer
By Richard Hunt in ADA, ADA Litigation Procedure, Public Facilities, Title II Tags: ADA defense, ADA Title II, continuing violation, FHA Defense, Hamer v Trinidad, repeated violations, Statute of limitations, Supreme Court, Tenth Circuit
I blogged about the 10th Circuit’s decision in Hamer v City of Trinidad earlier this year.* The City has now filed a Petition for Certiorari that may well take the case to the Supreme Court because the issues and conflict between the Circuits are well defined.**
The heart of the dispute concerns a novel doctrine invented by the Tenth Circuit, the “repeated violations doctrine.” Under this doctrine every Title II entity has an immediate obligation to fix every problem with accessibility everywhere, and its failure to do so constitutes a new ADA violation every day. The age of the facility doesn’t matter because the obligation is to fix things regardless of when they were built. A sidewalk built a century before passage of the ADA must be fixed in the same way a sidewalk built last week must be fixed. Other Circuits have refused to impose this kind of endless liability, tying the limitations period either to the when the facility was built or renovated or to the date the plaintiff first suffered an injury, and refusing to find a generalized obligation to fix things that did not violate the law when they were built. More
Eternal liability under ADA Title – It’s what you don’t do that matters
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - Standing, Public Facilities, Rehabilitation Act, Title II Tags: ADA defense, ADA statute of limitations, ADA Title II, Babcock v Michigan, Frame v Arlington, Hamer v Trinidad
I’ve observed before that titles II and III of the ADA create what can be called a crime looking for a victim.* The decision in Hamer v. City of Trinidad, 2019 WL 2120132 (10th Cir. May 15, 2019) shows how defining the crime can change the burden cities may face today based on decisions that go back decades or even centuries. The decision in Hamer will allow almost any person with a disability to demand that every inaccessible facility of a town like Trinidad be fixed regardless of its historical origin and regardless of how long the plaintiff has known of the problem. This decision contradicts decisions from other Circuits and follows a dubious analytical path. (For those who want a different view on this case, William Goren’s blog Repeated Violations Doctrine makes the case for this decision being correct). More