In December 2015 and January 2016, two district courts in the Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of class action settlements in cases involving accessible transportation at hotels. The cases, brought by CREEC, Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, and Campins Benham-Baker LLP on behalf of CREEC and several individuals with mobility disabilities who use wheelchairs, allege that many hotels owned by the defendant real estate investment trusts provide transportation services to guests, but fail to provide equivalent wheelchair accessible transportation as required by the ADA and California state law. The lawsuits seek only declaratory and injunctive relief.
The proposed settlements will provide nationwide, comprehensive injunctive relief that will ensure the provision of equivalent accessible transportation, including three years of monitoring. In the order granting preliminary approval and certifying the settlement class in the RLJ case, the Court held that the three individual plaintiffs had standing as testers to pursue injunctive relief under title III of the ADA.