Courts Grant Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlements in Cases Challenging Inaccessible Transportation at Hotels

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…

The National Association of the Deaf and Gogo LLC Agree to Make Closed Captions Available on In-Flight Entertainment Systems

(Jan. 26, 2016) Deaf and hard of hearing airline passengers will soon have closed captioned, on-demand in-flight entertainment videos. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), a non-profit civil rights organization of, by, and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals,…

Gay Widower Sues San Francisco Bay Area Union Pension Plan for Refusing to Provide Survivor Benefits After His Husband Died

Today, the widower of a hotel telecommunications engineer in San Francisco sued the IUOE Stationary Engineers Local 39 Pension Plan and its Board of Trustees for refusing to provide him with a spousal pension benefit required by the terms of…

Court Denies FedEx’s Attempt to Dismiss Suit by Surviving Same-Sex Spouse of Longtime Employee Seeking Pension Benefits

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton denied FedEx’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit filed by Stacey Schuett, a widow of a longtime FedEx employee who has been denied the survivor pension benefits her same-sex spouse earned during her…