Red Lobster Can’t Escape ADA Class Action

A Pennsylvania federal judge has rejected Red Lobster’s attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the restaurant chain of not providing full wheelchair access in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The decision to deny dismissal was tended by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan, who determined that plaintiff Bartley Mullen Jr. has individual standing necessary to file his claims. 

Mullen is a Pittsburgh-area wheelchair user who says he visited a Red Lobster restaurant near his home, only to discover that the bar area of the restaurant was unable to accommodate his wheelchair.

He claims this barrier prevented him and other wheelchair users from having the “full and equal access” to Red Lobster’s facilities that are guaranteed to him by the ADA. 

In fighting the accessibility class action lawsuit, Red Lobster argued that Mullen had experiences at the restaurant that were not representative of other customers, and therefore did not merit a class action lawsuit.

However, Judge Lenihan noted that Mullen had sufficiently established several other Red Lobster restaurants with similar set-ups that prevented wheelchair users from accessing the bar area. 

The judge also rejected Red Lobster’s assertion that Mullen could not file an ADA class action lawsuit against the restaurant because he was not a regular customer of Red Lobster, and did not intend to eat at Red Lobster in the future. She called this argument “entirely unpersuasive.”

The plaintiff says he is deterred from being a regular customer, precisely because the restaurants are inaccessible to him.

The defendant had used the fact that Mullen only visited the restaurant once to bolster their argument that his experience was enigmatic, and not representative of a larger trend, as well as the restaurant’s assertion that his claims as a whole were a “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” 

In response, Mullen claims the design issues that prevented wheelchair users from accessing the bar area of Red Lobster were indeed representative of “mandatory common design and construction plans,” present at multiple Red Lobster restaurants. 

In rejecting this line of argument, Judge Lenihan pointed to other ADA class action lawsuits that were not dismissed, although the alleged ADA violation had occurred at only a few locations of a large chain — these reportedly included accessibility class action lawsuits launched at restaurants such as Giant Eagle, Cracker Barrel and Boston Market.

Have you been in a restaurant or other business that you did not feel was fully accessible? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below.

Mullen is represented by R. Bruce Carlson and Bryan Fox of Carlson Lynch LLP and Patrick Michenfelder and Chad Throndset of Throndset Michenfelder LLC.

The Red Lobster Wheelchair Accessibility Class Action Lawsuit is Bartley M. Mullen Jr. v. Red Lobster Restaurants LLC, Case No. 2:19-cv-00305-LPL, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

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