Starbucks Hit with ADA Class Action Lawsuit

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A wheelchair bound woman in Pennsylvania filed an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) class action lawsuit against Starbucks, alleging that several of its locations are not wheelchair accessible according to the federal law.

Plaintiff Sarah Heinzl visited a Starbucks in Pittsburgh where she “experienced difficulty and risk due to excessive slopes in the purportedly accessible parking space, and along the route to the entrance of the facility.”

Heinzl alleges ADA violations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Maryland.

“Though defendant has centralized policies regarding the management and operation of its facilities, defendant has never had a plan or policy that is reasonably calculated to make its facilities fully accessible to, and independently usable by individuals with mobility disabilities,” the Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit states.

The violations listed in the ADA class action lawsuit are slopes that were too steep, grates with large openings in the accessible parking space, curbs and ramps that are too steep, lack of spaces that are van accessible, van accessible signs that are less than 60 inches above the finished surface of the parking area, accessible spaces are lacking the required signs, and the route to the entrance with slopes that were to steep.

Heinzl explains that Starbucks “facilities were altered, designed, or constructed, after the effective date of the ADA,” which was passed in 1990, and the Starbucks locations are “required to be altered, designed, and constructed so that they are readily accessible to and usable by individuals who use wheelchairs.”

“The architectural barriers described above demonstrate that [Starbucks] has failed to remove barriers,” she alleges in the ADA class action lawsuit. Starbucks “has failed, and continues to fail, to provide individuals who use wheelchairs with full and equal enjoyment of its facilities.”

The Pennsylvania woman is asking for injunctive relief, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

This includes “a declaratory judgement that [Starbucks] is in violation of the specific requirements of Title III of the ADA described above, and the relevant implementing regulations of the ADA, in that Defendant’s facilities . . . are not fully accessible to, and independently usable by, individual who use wheelchairs.”

She is also asking for a “permanent injunction,” in which Starbucks is required “to remove the architectural barriers described” in the lawsuit and bring “its facilities into full compliance with the requirements set forth in the ADA, and its implementing regulations, so that its facilities are fully accessible to, and independently usable by, individuals who use wheelchairs.”

Plaintiffs are represented by Benjamin J. Sweet, R. Bruce Carlson and Stephanie Goldin of Carlson Lynch Sweet & Kilpela LLP.

Attorney information for defendants was not immediately available.

The ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Sarah Heinzl v. Starbucks Corp., Case No. 2:14-cv-01316, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.