Civil Rights: The Price Of A Frivolous ADA Hotel Accessibility Action In Terms Of Attorney’s Fees—Plaintiff Was Hit With A $57,604.90 Adverse Fee/Costs Award

Voluntary Dismissal Before Opposition To Summary Judgment Motion Did Not Do The Trick.

               In Garcia v. Zarco Hotels Incorporated, Case No. B332298 (2d Dist., Div. 1 July 29, 2024) (unpublished), plaintiff brought an ADA suit challenging a hotel’s accessibility policies to enable disabled persons to determine whether the hotel’s common areas and room were accessible to them.  Hotel moved for summary judgment, challenging the accessibility assumptions, with plaintiff dismissing the case before any SJM opposition was due.  (In moving for SJM, hotel relied on about 50 federal district court decisions dismissing similar claims about hotel reservations websites, most filed by plaintiff’s counsel and including many where plaintiff was the plaintiff.)  The lower court found that plaintiff’s case was frivolous under the ADA’s fee-shifting provision in 42 U.S.C. § 12205 which permits a court, in its discretion, to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs against a plaintiff and in favor of a prevailing defendant where “the plaintiff’s action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation.”  (Summers v. A. Teichert & Son, Inc., 127 F.3d 1150, 1151 (9^th Cir. 1997).)  The lower court awarded $57,604.90 in fees and costs to hotel as the prevailing party.

               The 2/1 DCA affirmed, based on an abuse of discretion review standard.  Plaintiff’s own evidence did not bear out his case, and the federal decisions otherwise did not blunt that the hotel’s website was ADA compliant based on the SJM evidence never refuted by Plaintiff.