Dress Barn Faces an ADA Class Action Lawsuit in California

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A wheelchair bound woman has filed a class action lawsuit against The Dress Barn Inc. alleging that the fitting rooms and restrooms in the clothing store are not in compliance with state and federal disability laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Plaintiff Kirby Velasco of Long Beach, California, is a paraplegic and needs a wheelchair to get around. She filed her ADA class action lawsuit on Nov. 4 in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County.

On Aug. 23 Velasco shopped at a Dress Barn store in Cerritos, California with the intent of buying some clothes, but she alleges that she “suffered discrimination as a result of being denied full and equal access to the store’s changing/fitting room and restroom.”

She claims that she was unable to use the store’s fitting rooms “because there was not a clear floor space which allowed her to make a 180-degree turn, and the dressing room door interfered with her turning space.”

In addition, once she was inside the fitting room she “had difficulty transferring from her wheelchair to the bench provided in the changing room because there was not enough space alongside the bench to allow a person using a wheelchair to make a parallel transfer onto the bench, and the bench was too narrow.”

The hooks in the dressing room were also too high for her to hang the clothes she wanted to try on, she said in her ADA class action lawsuit.

Due to these issues, Velasco claims she was not able to use the dressing rooms at all.

On top of the problems she had with the fitting rooms, Velasco also claims in her Dress Barn class action lawsuit that the restrooms weren’t accessible for her either.

“Plaintiff had great difficulty even accessing the restroom without assistance due to the fact that the restroom door closer was not adjusted to allow the bathroom door to remain open for at least three seconds making it nearly impossible for her to wheel herself in unassisted,” according to the ADA class action lawsuit.

She was also “deterred from using the sink because the pipes” were exposed and she was afraid she might burn her legs. She was also unable to access the mirror and toilet paper dispenser, and “was unable to use the restroom.”

Velasco claims in her ADA class action lawsuit that she sent a letter to Dress Barn on Aug. 24, notifying the company of these violations to give them the opportunity to correct these problems within 30 days without having to resort to litigation, but nothing has been fixed.

In addition, she alleges that there are also state and federal violations that discriminate against disabled persons at 15 other Dress Barn locations throughout Southern California, which also includes allegations that the parking lots lack the required signs and number of handicap spaces they are supposed to have.

Velasco alleges that Dress Barn has violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the California Disabled Persons Act, and another section of the California Civil Code, combined, these alleged violations also constitute a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

“The Unruh Civil Rights Act . . . prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by ‘all business establishments of every kind whatsoever,'” she explains in her Dress Barn class action lawsuit.

The California Civil Codes “require public accommodations to maintain in operable working condition those features of facilities and equipment that are required to be accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities.”

In addition, the California Disabled Persons Act “guarantees, inter alia, that persons with disabilities are entitled to full and equal access, as other members of the general public, to accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of covered entities.”

The California woman is asking that Dress Barn be required to fix these violations and she be granted minimum statutory damages.

The plaintiff is represented by Evan J. Smith of Brodsky & Smith LLC.

Attorney information for Dress Barn is not yet available.

The Dress Barn ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Velasco v. The Dress Barn Inc., Case No. BC562903, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.