FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

JERRY DORAN, 

Plaintiff-Appellant, No. 05-56439

v. D.C. No.  CV-04-01125-JVS 7-ELEVEN, INC., d/b/a 7-ELEVEN;

SOUTHLAND CORP., OPINION

Defendants-Appellees. 

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Central District of California

James V. Selna, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted

April 16, 2007—Pasadena, California

Filed November 9, 2007

Before: Jerome Farris and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges,

and Kevin Thomas Duffy,* District Judge.

Per Curiam Opinion;

Dissent by Judge Duffy

*The Honorable Kevin Thomas Duffy, Senior United States District

Judge for the Southern District of New York, sitting by designation. 

14761
COUNSEL

Lynn Hubbard, III and Scottlynn J. Hubbard, IV, Law Offices

of Lynn Hubbard, Chico, California, for plaintiff-appellant

Jerry Doran. 

14764 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
Scott J. Ferrell, Julie R. Trotter, and Melinda Evans, Call, Jensen & Ferrell, Newport Beach, California, for defendantsappellees 7-Eleven, Inc. and Southland Corp.

OPINION

PER CURIAM: 

We review an order of the district court granting summary

judgment to 7-Eleven, Inc. in Jerry Doran’s suit under the

Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”). We affirm the district court’s summary judgment on certain alleged ADA violations Doran encountered or of which he had personal

knowledge. However, because the district court erred in concluding that Doran did not have standing to challenge other

barriers related to his disability and identified in his expert’s

site inspection, we partially vacate the district court’s order

granting summary judgment, and we remand for further proceedings.

I

Doran is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility

and travels in a wheelchair-accessible minivan. Doran lives in

Cottonwood, California, but has on several occasions visited

the 7-Eleven store on North Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim,

California. This 7-Eleven store is about 550 miles from his

home. In September 2004, Doran filed suit in the district

court, alleging that the North Harbor 7-Eleven store contained

barriers that denied him full and equal access to the store, that

he had personally encountered barriers at the store, and that

the barriers deterred him from visiting the store. He requested

injunctive relief under Title III of the ADA and injunctive

relief and monetary damages under California law. 

In a deposition taken on May 19, 2005, Doran testified that

he had encountered or had knowledge of nine alleged barriers

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14765
at the 7-Eleven store: (1) that there was no van-accessible

parking nor any sign denoting such parking; (2) that the striping outlining the disabled parking space was faded; (3) that

there was no sign designating the location of the wheelchair

ramp; (4) that the wheelchair ramp was too steep; (5) that the

store aisles were too narrow; (6) that the entry mat obstructed

entry to the store; (7) that disabled patrons were denied access

to the employees-only restroom; (8) that the floor space was

obstructed by merchandise; and (9) that there were no directional signs indicating the nearest accessible store entrance. 

On June 23, 2005, the magistrate judge issued a discovery

order allowing Doran to conduct a site inspection of the store

but limiting the inspection to barriers that Doran testified he

had encountered or knew about but did not personally

encounter. The district court denied Doran’s motion for

review of the magistrate judge’s ruling. Despite the limited

scope of the discovery order, Doran’s expert inspected the

store and identified barriers, beyond those Doran identified in

his deposition, that would potentially impact mobilityimpaired individuals. The expert reported that, among other

things, the cashier’s counter and ATM were too high, the condiment counter required too long of a reach, and the accessible parking spaces were too sloped. 

The district court granted summary judgment to 7-Eleven

on all of Doran’s ADA claims. The court held that Doran did

not have standing to challenge the barriers first identified in

the expert report because Doran neither encountered nor had

personal knowledge of those barriers. As to the nine barriers

that Doran testified he had encountered or had known about,

the district court held either that 7-Eleven had already

removed them or that Doran had failed to provide any evidence that the alleged barriers violated the ADA. As specifically relevant to this appeal, the district court held that (1)

Doran produced no evidence that the store aisles were too narrow under the ADA Accessibility Guidelines or that 7-Eleven

maintained an aisle-width policy that violated the ADA and

14766 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
(2) excluding disabled patrons from the store’s employeesonly restroom did not violate the ADA. After granting summary judgment to 7-Eleven on Doran’s federal claims, the

district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction

over Doran’s state law claims and dismissed them without

prejudice. 

II

Both parties raise standing issues. 7-Eleven argues that

Doran cannot establish that the North Harbor 7-Eleven store

poses an immediate threat of harm to him because it is more

than 500 miles away from his home and that Doran therefore

lacks standing to sue concerning any of the store’s barriers.

Doran, on the other hand, argues that a disabled person has

standing to challenge all of the barriers related to his disability

in a place of public accommodation, not just those he had

encountered or those of which he had personal knowledge.1

The doctrine of standing is based both on prudential concerns and on constitutional limitations on the jurisdiction of

the federal courts. Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 162 (1997);

Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498 (1975). To determine

whether a dispute presents a case or controversy sufficient to

give us jurisdiction under Article III of the Constitution, we

apply a three-element test formulated by the Supreme Court:

First, the plaintiff must have suffered an “injury in

fact”—an invasion of a legally protected interest

which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b)

actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.

Second, there must be a causal connection between

1The existence of standing is a question of law that we review de novo.

Mortensen v. County of Sacramento, 368 F.3d 1082, 1086 (9th Cir. 2004).

We may affirm summary judgment on any ground supported by the

record. Ground Zero Ctr. for Non-Violent Action v. U.S. Dep’t of the

Navy, 383 F.3d 1082, 1086 (9th Cir. 2004). 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14767
the injury and the conduct complained of . . . . Third,

it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative,

that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. 

Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61 (1992)

(internal quotation marks, citations, and footnote omitted).

The Supreme Court has instructed us to take a broad view of

constitutional standing in civil rights cases, especially where,

as under the ADA, private enforcement suits “are the primary

method of obtaining compliance with the Act.” Trafficante v.

Metro. Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205, 209 (1972); see also 42

U.S.C. § 12188(a) (providing private right of action for

injunctive relief against public accommodations that violate

the ADA). 

We previously addressed the injury-in-fact prong of the

Article III standing test in another ADA case in which Doran

was the plaintiff: Pickern v. Holiday Quality Foods Inc., 293

F.3d 1133 (9th Cir. 2002). In that case, Doran brought suit

challenging architectural barriers in a Holiday Foods grocery

store in Paradise, California that was 70 miles from his home,

but near the home of his grandmother who he visited frequently. Id. at 1135. Before filing suit, Doran had visited the

Paradise Holiday Foods only twice. Id. at 1136. During his

first visit, which occurred outside the relevant statute of limitations period, Doran personally encountered architectural

barriers. Id. at 1135. During Doran’s second visit, because of

the barriers in the store, he had to wait in the parking lot while

his companion went into the store on his behalf. Id. at 1136.

Doran’s second trip to the store occurred within the limitations period. Id. But because Doran’s personal encounter with

the barriers had occurred outside the limitations period, one

of the questions before us was whether he had suffered an

injury in fact within the limitations period sufficient to give

him standing. Id. at 1137. 

As to Lujan’s requirement that an injury be concrete and

particularized, we held “that in stating that he is currently

14768 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
deterred from attempting to gain access to the Paradise store,

Doran has stated sufficient facts to show concrete, particularized injury.” Id. at 1137-38. As to Lujan’s requirement that a

plaintiff’s injury be actual or imminent, we held 

that a disabled individual who is currently deterred

from patronizing a public accommodation due to a

defendant’s failure to comply with the ADA has suffered “actual injury.” Similarly, a plaintiff who is

threatened with harm in the future because of existing or imminently threatened non-compliance with

the ADA suffers “imminent injury.” 

Id. at 1138. 

A

As noted above, 7-Eleven argues that Doran lacks constitutional standing to challenge any of the alleged barriers in the

North Harbor 7-Eleven because the store is so far away from

his home. 

However, Doran has suffered an injury that is concrete and

particularized because he alleged that he personally suffered

discrimination as a result of the barriers in place during his

visits to 7-Eleven and that those barriers have deterred him

from continuing to patronize the store. See Pickern, 293 F.3d

at 1137-38; see also Parr v. L & L Drive-Inn Rest., 96 F.

Supp. 2d 1065, 1079 (D. Haw. 2000) (“Plaintiff’s desire to

patronize Defendant’s restaurant free from discrimination is

clearly a cognizable interest for the purposes of standing.”).

[1] As to whether Doran’s injury is actual or imminent,

Doran alleged that he had visited the 7-Eleven store on ten to

twenty prior occasions, that he is currently deterred from visiting the store because of its accessibility barriers, that the

store is conveniently located near his favorite fast food restaurant in Anaheim, and that he plans to visit Anaheim at least

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14769
once a year on his annual trips to Disneyland. Allegations that

a plaintiff has visited a public accommodation on a prior

occasion and is currently deterred from visiting that accommodation by accessibility barriers establish that a plaintiff’s

injury is actual or imminent. Pickern, 293 F.3d at 1138; Molski v. Arby’s Huntington Beach, 359 F. Supp. 2d 938, 947

(C.D. Cal. 2005) (holding that a plaintiff suffered actual and

imminent injury when he alleged (1) that he visited an accommodation in the past; (2) that he was currently deterred from

returning to the accommodation because of ADA violations;

and (3) that he would return if the ADA violations were remedied); Parr, 96 F. Supp. 2d at 1079 (noting that past patronage

plus a sincere intent to return renders an injury actual or

imminent); see also Disabled Ams. for Equal Access, Inc. v.

Ferries del Caribe, Inc., 405 F.3d 60, 64 (1st Cir. 2005)

(granting standing to an ADA plaintiff who had visited a

cruise ship on three previous occasions and averred an intent

to do so again at some nonspecific future time). Notwithstanding the distance between Doran’s home and the 7-Eleven,

there is an actual or imminent threat that, during his planned

future visits to Anaheim, Doran will suffer harm as a result of

the alleged barriers. 

[2] We hold that Doran has suffered an injury in fact that

is concrete, particularized, actual, and imminent. Doran therefore has constitutional standing to bring his suit challenging

accessibility barriers in the North Harbor 7-Eleven store. 

B

We next address Doran’s argument that the district court

erred in ruling that he had standing to challenge only those

barriers that he had encountered or about which he had personal knowledge. 

It is of signal importance that the parties do not dispute that

Doran personally encountered or had personal knowledge of

nine barriers to accessing the North Harbor 7-Eleven store in

14770 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
his wheelchair. We concluded above that Doran’s encounters

with and knowledge of those barriers gave him Article III

standing at the time he filed his complaint. See Lujan, 504

U.S. at 560; Pickern, 293 F.3d at 1138. This standing gets him

inside the courthouse door and brings his Article III case forward for our judicial evaluation.2

[3] There remains a question, however, about the scope of

barriers that Doran may challenge. This question requires us

to consider the precise nature and scope of the injury that

Doran and similarly situated plaintiffs have suffered when

they encounter what they allege to be architectural barriers

violative of the ADA, both in the context of Article III’s

injury-in-fact requirement and in the context of the ADA

itself. As we discussed in part A above, Doran encountered

several barriers to accessing the North Harbor 7-Eleven in his

wheelchair, and these barriers deterred him from attempting

to enter the store again. This deterrent effect in turn prevented

Doran from discovering what other access barriers might exist

within the store that he had not encountered on his previous

visits. In other words, the reason that he did not know the full

scope of 7-Eleven’s ADA violations when he filed his complaint is that the violations he did know about deterred him

from conducting further first-hand investigation of the store’s

accessibility. Where this deterrence itself has been identified

2The dissent contends that our opinion would “preempt the Constitution” by “confer[ring] standing [on ADA plaintiffs] . . . for things that did

not injure” them. However, the above discussion with respect to Doran

makes clear that it is the access barriers that the ADA plaintiff actually

encountered or about which he had personal knowledge that “confer”

standing on him under Article III. Once a disabled individual has encountered or become aware of alleged ADA violations that deter his patronage

of or otherwise interfere with his access to a place of public accommodation, he has already suffered an injury in fact traceable to the defendant’s

conduct and capable of being redressed by the courts, and so he possesses

standing under Article III to bring his claim for injunctive relief forward.

See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61. The only remaining question is one of

scope: namely, what particular alleged ADA violations he may include in

that claim for injunctive relief. 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14771
as the injury conferring standing to sue on an ADA plaintiff,

see Pickern, 293 F.3d at 1137-38, it would be ironic if not

perverse to charge that the natural consequence of this deterrence, the inability to personally discover additional facts

about the defendant’s violations, would defeat that plaintiff’s

standing to challenge other violations at the same location that

subsequently come to light. This, however, is the crux of 7-

Eleven’s position. 

[4] However, it is also misleading to conceptualize each

separate architectural barrier inhibiting a disabled person’s

access to a public accommodation as a separate injury that

must satisfy the requirements of Article III. Doran suffered

“discrimination” within the meaning of Title III of the ADA,

as well as a legally cognizable injury for purposes of Article

III standing, the first time that he encountered architectural

barriers at the North Harbor 7-Eleven. The relevant section of

the ADA provides that “discriminat[ion] . . . on the basis of

disability” includes “a failure to remove architectural barriers

. . . where such removal is readily achievable.” 42 U.S.C.

§ 12182. While 7-Eleven did remove some of the architectural

barriers at the North Harbor location about which Doran had

complained, others remained in place that would have interfered with his access as a wheelchair user, as evidenced by the

site inspection of Doran’s expert. Thus the discrimination

against Doran, and the corresponding Article III injury of

deterrence from visiting the store, continued even after the

violations he initially listed were corrected. Although he is

aware of this fact because his expert had an opportunity to

inspect the location, many disabled individuals will not have

this chance and so, under the district court’s view, would have

uncertainty about whether the list of access barriers they perchance encountered or learned about before being deterred

from entry is exhaustive or whether other, potentially dangerous obstacles to a person with their disability remain in place,

only to be encountered when the disabled persons return to

the site after the “successful” conclusion of their suit. Such

uncertainty is itself an actual, concrete and particularized

14772 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
injury under the deterrence framework of standing articulated

in Pickern, for when a disabled individual knows that a facility is noncompliant with the ADA in at least some respects

but does not know the full extent of the noncompliance, he or

she is likely to be deterred from returning to that facility, even

if some of the violations are corrected, until he or she can get

more information about the extent of the violations. This presents a real and concrete burden for a disabled person, especially when unknown violations may pose safety hazards to

that individual. 

[5] Reinforcing that an ADA plaintiff has standing because

of deterrence from returning in the face of uncertainty, it is

prudent to eliminate that uncertainty through the judicial

device of discovery, thus allowing the plaintiff to obtain by

formal means the information about the scope of the defendant’s violations that he or she was unable to ascertain personally because of those same violations. This course is

consistent with Constitutional requirements, for we have been

instructed to take a broad view of Article III standing in civil

rights cases where private rights of action are the primary

means of enforcing the statute. See Trafficante, 409 U.S. at

209. Indeed, the enforcement scheme of Title III of the ADA

would be severely undermined if we were to adopt the piecemeal approach to standing advocated by 7-Eleven. The statute

provides that where an individual, like Doran, has suffered

discrimination in the form of a refusal to remove architectural

barriers, he may seek injunctive relief including “an order to

alter facilities to make such facilities readily accessible . . .

and usable.” 42 U.S.C. § 12188(a)(2). Such injunctive relief

could not be crafted, however, if the parties had not been

allowed to determine through discovery precisely what barriers prevented the facility in question from being “readily

accessible to and usable by” Doran. We therefore hold that

where a disabled person has Article III standing to bring a

claim for injunctive relief under the ADA because of at least

one statutory violation of which he or she has knowledge and

which deters access to a place of public accommodation, he

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14773
or she may conduct discovery to determine what, if any, other

barriers affecting his or her disability existed at the time he or

she brought the claim. This list of barriers would then in total

constitute the factual underpinnings of a single legal injury,

namely, the failure to remove architectural barriers in violation of the ADA, which failure actually harmed the disabled

person by deterring that disabled person from visiting a facility that otherwise would have been visited at a definite future

time, yielding Article III standing. See Pickern, 293 F.3d at

1138. 

[6] This question regarding the breadth of Doran’s right to

sue also implicates the prudential aspects of the standing doctrine. See Bennett, 520 U.S. at 164; Warth, 422 U.S. at 499;

Wilson v. Pier 1 Imports (US), Inc., 413 F. Supp. 2d 1130,

1135 (E.D. Cal. 2006). “[P]rudential standing . . . embodies

judicially self-imposed limits on the exercise of federal jurisdiction.” Elk Grove Unified Sch. Dist. v. Newdow, 542 U.S.

1, 11 (2004). These limits include “the general prohibition on

a litigant’s raising another person’s legal rights, the rule barring adjudication of generalized grievances more appropriately addressed in the representative branches, and the

requirement that a plaintiff’s complaint fall within the zone of

interests protected by the law invoked.” Allen v. Wright, 468

U.S. 737, 751 (1984). 

In Pickern, in the course of holding that Doran’s deterrence

from visiting the Paradise Holiday Foods was an injury in

fact, we stated our agreement with the Eighth Circuit’s holding in Steger v. Franco, Inc., 228 F.3d 889 (8th Cir. 2000).

Pickern, 293 F.3d at 1138. In Steger, the Eighth Circuit

directly addressed the scope of barriers an ADA plaintiff

could challenge. In that case, a blind plaintiff had entered the

defendant’s office building one time before filing an ADA

suit. Steger, 228 F.3d at 893. During that visit, the plaintiff

entered the common area of the building to access the men’s

restroom, but he was unable to find the restroom because the

building’s signage did not comply with the ADA. Id. The

14774 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
plaintiff filed suit, challenging all of the ADA violations in

the building, both related and unrelated to his disability of

blindness. Id.

The Eighth Circuit held that the plaintiff lacked standing to

challenge the ADA violations unrelated to his particular disability. Id. However, the court did not limit the blind plaintiff’s standing to only the signage barrier that he had

personally encountered. See id. at 893-94. The plaintiff’s

expert presented evidence that the building contained many

ADA violations that could injure blind persons. Id. at 893.

The Eighth Circuit observed that a rule limiting the plaintiff’s

standing to the signage barrier he personally encountered and

forbidding the plaintiff from challenging other barriers related

to his disability would result in “piecemeal compliance” with

the ADA. Id. at 894. The court reasoned that “[t]o compel a

building’s ADA compliance, numerous blind plaintiffs, each

injured by a different barrier, would have to seek injunctive

relief as to the particular barrier encountered until all barriers

had been removed.” Id. The court therefore concluded that the

blind plaintiff had standing to seek relief for any ADA violation in the defendant’s building “affecting his specific disability.” Id.

Though the Eighth Circuit in Steger couched its opinion in

terms of Article III’s irreducible requirement of standing, we

think the more compelling elements of the Steger analysis

involve considerations relevant to prudential standing. In the

ADA context, constitutional limits on standing ensure that we

do not adjudicate a case where a plaintiff does not have an

actual or imminent, concrete injury, caused by the discrimination challenged in the suit, which is redressable by judicial

decision. Here, as in Steger, the requirements of constitutional

standing were met where the plaintiff encountered one barrier

related to his disability and, because of that barrier and his

attendant inability fully to access the facility, was unable to

determine what other barriers might also obstruct his access

and so was deterred from attempting to enter the facility

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14775
again. Prudential limits on standing, by contrast, ensure that

we do not “decide abstract questions of wide public significance even though other governmental institutions may be

more competent to address the questions and even though

judicial intervention may be unnecessary to protect individual

rights.” Warth, 422 U.S. at 500. 

In this case, Doran seeks to cure the North Harbor 7-Eleven

store of all ADA violations that impede his full enjoyment of

the facility as a wheelchair user. Because Doran challenges

only those barriers that affect his specific disability and therefore impinge on his individual right to fully enjoy the 7-

Eleven store, the case before us presents neither abstract questions nor questions better answered by other governmental

bodies. In light of Doran’s personal desire to return to the 7-

Eleven store and the deterrence imposed by the barriers

within the store, our intervention is necessary to protect the

individual rights conferred on Doran by the ADA. See 42

U.S.C. § 12182(a) (“No individual shall be discriminated

against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages,

or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.

. . .”). 

Concerns of judicial economy properly affect our resolution of prudential standing disputes. See, e.g., United Food &

Commercial Workers Union Local 751 v. Brown Group, Inc.,

517 U.S. 544, 557 (1996) (noting that the prudential standing

rules focus on “matters of administrative convenience and

efficiency”); Ecological Rights Found. v. Pac. Lumber Co.,

230 F.3d 1141, 1147 n.6. (9th Cir. 2000). The rule proposed

by 7-Eleven, permitting a plaintiff to challenge only barriers

that he or she personally encountered or of which the plaintiff

had first-hand knowledge, not only would invite but would

require disabled plaintiffs to engage in piecemeal litigation to

eliminate barriers the ADA prohibits. A thought experiment

illustrates: 

14776 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
Suppose a wheelchair-bound person cannot access a restaurant because the restaurant has no place to park a wheelchairaccessible van and the only entry to the restaurant is up a

flight of stairs. Suppose further that, inside the restaurant, an

additional flight of stairs precludes wheelchair access to the

dining room and that the table layout does not permit wheelchair egress. Under 7-Eleven’s proposed rule, when the disabled person initially cannot enter the restaurant to encounter

or gain personal knowledge of the barriers within it, the disabled person as a plaintiff does not have standing to challenge

the barriers inside the restaurant. So, the disabled person sues,

challenging only the barriers encountered—the lack of a parking space and the lack of an accessible entry. Victorious in

that case, the disabled person parks his or her van in the restaurant’s new handicapped parking space and, on a new

wheelchair ramp, enters the restaurant for a meal, only to discover the accessibility problems with the internal stairs and

table layout. The restaurant is still inaccessible. The parking

and entry problems remedied by the prior litigation only fostered an illusion of accessibility, and the restaurant still cannot

be fully enjoyed by a person in a wheelchair. 

Suppose the disabled person brings a second lawsuit, and

this results in removal of the inside stairs that pose a barrier.

Returning to the restaurant again, in hopes of a victory meal,

the disabled person now gets in the door and by a ramp or lift

gets past the internal stairs, only to find that the table layout

prohibits access from a wheelchair. If that problem is remedied by another lawsuit, the disabled person may still encounter another barrier, say, an inaccessible restroom that, for

practical purposes, rules out his or her use of this restaurant.

Under 7-Eleven’s proposed rule, because the plaintiff did not

encounter and could not discover3 the internal stairs and the

3Under 7-Eleven’s proposed rule, the disabled person would not be permitted to conduct discovery about the barriers inside the restaurant in the

first case because Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1) limits the

scope of discovery to matters relevant to the claims of a party. Barriers

within the restaurant would be irrelevant to a claim challenging barriers

outside the restaurant. 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14777
table and restroom barriers in the first case, the plaintiff must

file a succession of suits to challenge newly-encountered barriers. It might be argued that the example is somewhat exaggerated because the disabled person could perhaps get a

person who was not disabled to scout out any barrier before

suing, thereby giving the disabled person knowledge of the

internal barriers. However, to force the disabled person’s reliance on some other person is inconsistent with the ADA’s

goals and another person’s assessment, apart from that of an

expert, might be less knowledgeable about how barriers can

preclude a disabled person’s full use and enjoyment of a public accommodation. 

This precautionary tale makes clear that a rule limiting a

plaintiff to challenging the barriers he or she had encountered

or personally knew about would burden businesses and other

places of public accommodation with more ADA litigation,

encourage piecemeal compliance with the ADA, and ultimately thwart the ADA’s remedial goals of eliminating widespread discrimination against the disabled and integrating the

disabled into the mainstream of American life. See PGA Tour,

Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661, 674-75 (2001). It makes no

sense to require a disabled plaintiff to challenge, in separate

cases, multiple barriers in the same facility, controlled by the

same entity, all related to the plaintiff’s specific disability.4

We do not believe Congress could have intended such a constricted reading of the ADA which could render the benefits

it promises largely illusory. So long as there is an actual or

imminent injury from a barrier encountered or about which a

4With respect, the dissent’s hypothetical story about the possibility of

claims against multiple shopping center establishments is fanciful and far

off the mark. All that our opinion does today is to explore the scope of the

Article III claims that Doran has against 7-Eleven once it violated his

rights under the ADA. Our ruling does not in any way suggest that a person precluded from visiting a shopping center by lack of a disabled parking space at the shopping center could automatically have discovery

against multiple establishments in the center that were not responsible for

the injury to the disabled person caused by the lack of accessible parking.

14778 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
person had knowledge, deterring use of the public accommodation, the disabled person has standing to enter our court system. The scope of discovery and claims should then naturally

permit challenge to any barriers to use related to that person’s

disability. 

[7] Prudential standing principles, practical concerns about

piecemeal litigation, and our prior endorsement of the holding

of Steger leads us to hold the following: An ADA plaintiff

who has encountered or has personal knowledge of at least

one barrier related to his or her disability when he or she files

a complaint, and who has been deterred from attempting to

gain access to the public accommodation because of that barrier, has suffered an injury in fact for the purpose of Article

III. Pickern, 293 F.3d at 1138. An ADA plaintiff who has

Article III standing as a result of at least one barrier at a place

of public accommodation may, in one suit, permissibly challenge all barriers in that public accommodation that are

related to his or her specific disability. Steger, 228 F.3d at

894. 

Although we view the issue as primarily one of prudential

standing, our holding is fully consistent with the Supreme

Court’s Article III standing discourse. In Sierra Club v. Morton, the Supreme Court emphasized that “the ‘injury in fact’

test . . . requires that the party seeking review be himself

among the injured.” 405 U.S. 727, 734-35 (1972), quoted in

Lujan, 504 U.S. at 563. In this case, there is no doubt that

Doran is one of those injured by all of the barriers that impede

a wheelchair user’s access to and full enjoyment of the North

Harbor 7-Eleven store.5 The Supreme Court has repeatedly

5Of course, Doran is not among the class of persons injured by ADA

violations in the 7-Eleven store that do not relate to Doran’s particular

disability—that he must use a wheelchair for mobility. For that reason,

Doran cannot challenge all of the ADA violations in the 7-Eleven store.

For example, Doran does not have standing to challenge those barriers that

would burden or restrict access for a person who is blind. Doran may challenge only those barriers that might reasonably affect a wheelchair user’s

full enjoyment of the store. Steger, 228 F.3d at 893. 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14779
instructed that “ ‘the gist of the question of standing’ is

whether [the plaintiff has] ‘such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness

which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the

court so largely depends for illumination.’ ” Massachusetts v.

EPA, 127 S. Ct. 1438, 1453 (2007) (quoting Baker v. Carr,

369 U.S. 186, 204 (1962)). Even if a disabled plaintiff did not

know about certain barriers when the plaintiff first filed suit,

that plaintiff will have a “personal stake in the outcome of the

controversy” so long as his or her suit is limited to barriers

related to that person’s particular disability. See id.

[8] We hold that Doran has standing to sue for injunctive

relief for all barriers in the North Harbor 7-Eleven store

related to his specific disability, including those identified in

his expert’s site inspection. The district court’s conclusion to

the contrary was erroneous. 

III

Doran also argues that the district court erred in granting

summary judgment to 7-Eleven on the issues of whether the

store’s aisle width and the store’s refusal to allow him to

access the employees-only restroom were ADA violations.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Pan Pac.

Retail Prop., Inc. v. Gulf Ins. Co., 471 F.3d 961, 965 (9th Cir.

2006). Summary judgment is proper if “there is no genuine

issue as to any material fact and . . . the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).

Doran bears the burden of producing sufficient evidence to

defeat summary judgment regarding each of the store’s

alleged ADA violations because he would bear the burden of

proving such violations at trial. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett,

477 U.S. 317, 322 (1986).

A

[9] Doran relies on two pieces of evidence to show that the

store’s aisle width violates the ADA. Neither raises a genuine

14780 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
issue of material fact as to the width of the aisles. First, Doran

relies upon the affidavit of Joseph Gengo, 7-Eleven’s Division Construction Manager, in which Gengo stated “there is

at least 32 inches of clear space within the aisles.” Doran

argues that this statement is a tacit admission that the store’s

aisles are less than the thirty-six inches required by the ADA

Accessibility Guidelines. See 28 C.F.R. Ch. 1, Pt. 36, App. A,

§ 4.3.3 (2006). However, Gengo’s statement was a response

to Doran’s allegation that “some aisles are less than 32 inches

wide.” The district court properly concluded that Gengo’s

statement says nothing about whether the aisles are more or

less than thirty-six inches. 

Second, Doran identifies his own testimony that he scraped

his knuckles on the edge of the aisles while shopping as establishing a factual issue regarding the aisles’ insufficient width.

Doran bears the burden of showing a violation of the ADA

Accessibility Guidelines, the substantive standard of ADA

compliance. See Or. Paralyzed Veterans of Am. v. Regal Cinemas, Inc., 339 F.3d 1126, 1129 (9th Cir. 2003). That Doran

scraped his knuckles, unsupported by any measurements, is

insufficient to demonstrate that 7-Eleven’s aisles do not comply with the thirty-six-inch clearance that the Accessibility

Guidelines mandate. 

B

As to the grant of summary judgment to 7-Eleven regarding

7-Eleven’s refusal to let Doran use the store’s employees-only

restroom, the district court held that the exclusion of a disabled plaintiff from an employees-only restroom does not violate the ADA. We agree. 

[10] Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the

basis of disability in “any place of public accommodation.” 42

U.S.C. § 12182(a). Though the retail portion of the North

Harbor 7-Eleven is open to the public, the employees-only

restroom is not. In such “mixed-use” facilities, where only

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14781
part of the facility is open to the public, the portion that is

closed to the public is not a place of public accommodation

and thus is not subject to Title III of the ADA. See 28 C.F.R.

Ch. 1, Pt. 36, App. B at 687-88 (2006); see also Olinger v.

U.S. Golf Ass’n, 205 F.3d 1001, 1004 (7th Cir. 2000)

(“Pursuant to Justice Department regulations implementing

Title III, to the extent that a mixed use facility is not open to

the general public, it is not subject to the requirements for

public accommodations.” (internal quotation marks omitted)),

vacated on other grounds, 532 U.S. 1064 (2001); Jankey v.

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 14 F. Supp. 2d 1174,

1179 (C.D. Cal. 1998); Indep. Housing Servs. of S.F. v. Fillmore Ctr. Assocs., 840 F. Supp. 1328, 1344 (N.D. Cal. 1993).

The district court did not err in granting summary judgment

to 7-Eleven on Doran’s claim that 7-Eleven violated the ADA

by excluding him from the employees-only restroom.

IV

Doran next argues that the district court erred in declining

supplemental jurisdiction over his California law claims after

it eliminated his ADA claims at summary judgment. Because

we have held that Doran may challenge, under the ADA, the

alleged violations identified by Doran’s expert, we vacate the

district court’s order declining supplemental jurisdiction and

remand for further proceedings. 

V

In summary, we hold that the district court properly granted

summary judgment to 7-Eleven on the issues of whether the

store’s aisle width and the store’s refusal to allow him to

access the employees-only restroom violated the ADA. However, we also hold that Doran had standing to challenge the

barriers to his wheelchair access in the 7-Eleven store that he

learned about through his expert’s site inspection. Accordingly, we vacate the portion of the district court’s order granting summary judgment to 7-Eleven on those claims. Because

14782 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
those alleged ADA violations may give rise to a justiciable

dispute between Doran and 7-Eleven, we also vacate the district court’s order declining supplemental jurisdiction, and we

remand the case for further proceedings. Each party shall bear

its own costs on appeal. 

AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND

REMANDED.

DUFFY, District Judge, dissenting: 

I respectfully dissent. 

Today the majority holds that an ADA plaintiff has standing to sue for things that did not injure him. In holding that

a plaintiff who has encountered or has specific knowledge of

one barrier at a facility may sue for any unknown barrier on

the premises related to his disability, the majority reasons that

“[i]t makes no sense to require a disabled plaintiff to challenge, in separate cases, multiple barriers in the same facility,

controlled by the same entity, all related to the plaintiff’s specific disability. We do not believe Congress would have

intended such a constricted reading of the ADA which could

render the benefits it promises largely illusory.” The majority’s approach compromises longstanding constitutional principles for the sake of convenience, and ignores the fact that

no one—not even Congress—can preempt the Constitution

and confer standing to a party for things that have not injured

him. 

A plaintiff who seeks federal jurisdiction bears the burden

of proving that he has standing to pursue his claims in federal

court. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560

(1992). Doran has fallen short of meeting this burden. As the

Supreme Court has held, to establish standing: 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14783
First, the plaintiff must have suffered an “injury in

fact”—an invasion of a legally protected interest

which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) “actual or imminent, not ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical’ ”. Second, there must be a causal connection

between the injury and the conduct complained of—

the injury has to be “fairly . . . trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant, and not . . . th[e]

result [of] the independent action of some third party

not before the court. Third, it must be “likely,” as

opposed to merely “speculative,” that the injury will

be “redressed by a favorable decision.” 

Id. at 560-561 (internal citations omitted). The elements of

standing are not mere pleading requirements, but rather must

be supported by sufficient evidence. Id. at 561. 

Importantly, standing requires that “the party seeking

review be himself among the injured.” Id. at 563. To establish

that the plaintiff suffered an injury in fact, it must be “concrete and particularized,” which requires that “the injury must

affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual way.” Id. at

561 n.1. The result of this requirement is that the individual

plaintiff, and not some other hypothetical disabled person,

must have been injured by the alleged ADA violation. See

Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 358, n.6 (1996) (“[S]tanding is

not dispensed in gross.”). Taking these principles into

account, a plaintiff should not be able to get his nose in the

door of federal court with one alleged statutory violation and

then sue for countless other alleged statutory violations that

have in no way affected him. 

As the majority offers a hypothetical story as a point of

illustration, it seems appropriate to do the same in order to

emphasize the far-reaching implications of the holding today.

Imagine that a mobility-impaired person decides to spend the

day at a large shopping center that contains, among other

things, restaurants, shops, a movie theater, and a health spa.

14784 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
He is not planning on doing anything in particular, but in the

past he has enjoyed browsing in the shops, and hopes to dine

at one of the many restaurants in the evening. He also would

like to see one of the movies playing at the theater if anything

piques his interest. Much to his chagrin, however, upon his

arrival at the shopping center he discovers that there are no

handicapped parking spots and he is therefore unable to park

his van. At this point, it is beyond question that the plaintiff

has, in fact, suffered a cognizable injury in fact pursuant to

the ADA. 

Seeing the error of its ways, the shopping center quickly

rectifies the problem. However, in the meantime the plaintiff’s expert clandestinely examines all areas of the center, and

identifies hundreds of other ADA violations that could hypothetically affect a mobility-impaired person throughout, none

of which the plaintiff encountered or had knowledge of at the

time the complaint was filed. Based on the majority’s holding,

the scope of the violations for which the plaintiff is able to sue

is arguably boundless. The plaintiff’s lawyers will argue that

they are not limited to the common areas, but are able to sue

all of the establishments in the shopping center that present

hypothetical injuries to the plaintiff. Difficult questions inevitably arise: should plaintiff’s standing extend to all of the

shops he planned on patronizing, and to the movie theater

where he might have seen a movie? Does it extend to the

health spa, where he had no plans of going that day but has

a membership? What about the stores he has never been to

before, but he might have stumbled upon in the course of his

outing? Moreover, what mechanism is in place to substantiate

the claims of a plaintiff in this position regarding the establishments he intended to patronize or plans to visit in the future?6

6The variations on this theme are endless. What is the potential scope

of injuries relating to a mobility-impaired job applicant whose wheelchair

gets caught on a mat in the lobby of a large office building, or a blind high

school student on a campus tour of a prospective college who encounters

an elevator in the main building without the required signage? May the job

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14785
Standing is indispensable; it cannot be disregarded because

it is inefficient, or because to do otherwise might, as the

majority opines, not pragmatically “make sense.” See, e.g.,

Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 499 (1975) (“[Standing is] the

threshold question in every federal case, determining the

power of the court to entertain the suit.”). The majority’s position loses the forest for the trees. Generally, standing requirements actually enhance efficiency by concentrating limited

judicial resources on controversies as to those who have actually suffered injuries. Instead, the majority’s approach gives

ADA plaintiffs a carte blanche, an invitation to bring litigation even outside the presence of a real live case or controversy. See, e.g. Martinez v. Longs Drug Stores, No. CIVS-03-

1843DFL CMK, 2005 WL 2072013 at *4 (E.D. Cal., Aug. 25,

2005) (“[t]he court’s resources are best spent resolving real

issues that have affected real people at the present time rather

than reaching out to decide matters that may not affect anyone

or that may be resolved without judicial action.”). I can think

of no other area of the law where we bestow a plaintiff with

the right to assert any potential injuries he may suffer at the

hands of the defendant at some future time. See, e.g., Lewis,

518 U.S. at 358 n.6 (“if the right to complain of one administrative deficiency automatically conferred the right to complain of all administrative deficiencies, any citizen aggrieved

in one respect could bring the whole structure of state administration before the courts for review. This of course is not the

law.”). 

The majority’s holding is premised on the Eighth Circuit

decision Steger v. Franco, which allows for an ADA plaintiff

applicant now sue for all unknown violations at every place of public

accommodation throughout the entire building? May the student sue the

college for violations relating to his disability that exist in all of the

school’s buildings, even ones that are located on a separate campus across

town? In my mind, any liberalization of the injury in fact requirement is

unacceptable. One can only imagine the avalanche of litigation that

today’s holding has the potential to generate. 

14786 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
to sue for all violations pertaining to his disability regardless

of whether he encountered or knew about them. See Steger v.

Franco, 228 F.3d 889, 894 (8th Cir. 2000).7 Some of the

wording in Steger, however, is “fundamentally incompatible”

with established constitutional standing principles. See Hubbard v. 7-Eleven, Inc., 433 F. Supp. 2d 1134 (S.D. Cal. 2000).

To allow a plaintiff to sue for ADA violations he neither

knew about nor encountered directly flies in the face of

Lujan’s requirement that “the injury must affect the plaintiff

in a personal and individualized way.” See Lujan v. Defenders

of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561 n.1 (1992). The approach

advanced in Steger has been the subject of criticism, both by

the dissenting judge in Steger, see Steger, 228 F.3d at 894-96

(Loken, J., dissenting) as well as district courts within the

Ninth Circuit, see Hubbard v. 7-Eleven, 433 F. Supp. 2d

1134, 1142 (S.D. Cal. 2006); Harris v. Costco Wholesale

Corp., 389 F. Supp. 2d 1244, 1249 (S.D. Cal. 2005); Wilson

v. Norbreck, LLP, No. CIVS040690DFLJFM, 2005 WL

3439714, at *1 (E.D. Cal, Dec. 14, 2005); White v. Divine

Investments, Inc., No. Civ.S-04-0206FCD/DA, 2005 WL

2491543 at *3-4 (E.D. Cal. Oct. 7, 2005); Org. For Advancement of Minorities v. Brick Oven Restaurant, 406 F. Supp.2d

1120, 1126 (S.D. Cal. 2005); Martinez v. Longs Drug Stores,

No. CIVS-03-1843DFL CMK, 2005 WL 2072013 at *3-5

(E.D. Cal., Aug. 25, 2005). 

The majority’s reliance on Pickern v. Holiday Quality

Foods, 293 F.3d 1133 (9th Cir. 2002) is also misplaced.

While Pickern did engage in a discussion of Steger, its reference to the Eighth Circuit’s holding was a limited one. Pickern merely holds that an ADA plaintiff who has actual

knowledge of illegal barriers and has been deterred by them

may seek relief for their removal, even if he has not person7Despite the liberal holding in Steger, it is worth noting that the cases

of four out of the five plaintiffs in that case were dismissed for failure to

establish standing. 

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14787
ally encountered them.8 Pickern did not address the issue of

whether a plaintiff who knows about or encountered one or

even several illegal barriers has standing to sue for all illegal

barriers related to his disability within that facility. I think

Appellant’s brief says it best: “[i]f Doran were arguing that he

was denied full and equal enjoyment of the store, then the district court would be correct: an individual can hardly complain about unknown discriminatory acts. To hold otherwise

would allow disabled plaintiffs to sue without having suffered

the (minimal) injury-in-fact required under the ADA, and

eviscerate the Article III constraints imposed by Congress.”

See Appellant’s Opening Brief at 28. Though I remain puzzled as to why plaintiff-appellant’s own brief would contain

this language, I think he hits the nail on the head. 

Although one might argue that Steger has pragmatic

appeal, when it comes to abiding by the Constitution, the fact

that adherence to it might be inefficient or impractical is simply not enough to preempt its force. Time and again, the

Supreme Court has refused to allow the arguments of “piecemeal litigation” or “convenience and efficiency” to negate the

fundamental, constitutional requirement that plaintiffs present

an actual case or controversy in order to have Article III

standing. Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811, 820 (1997) (“[i]n the

light of this overriding and time-honored concern about keeping the Judiciary’s power within its proper constitutional

sphere, we must put aside the natural urge to proceed directly

to the merits of this important dispute and to ‘settle’ it for the

sake of convenience and efficiency”); Lewis v. Casey, 518

U.S. 343, 358, n.6 (1996). 

It goes without saying that convenience does not, or at least

should not, play a role in our adherence to the Constitution.

8

It is of interest that the one plaintiff-appellant in Pickern apparently is

the same person who is the plaintiff-appellant here. Counsel in this case

claims to have been counsel in the Pickern case. 

14788 DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC.
I am reluctant to contemplate the potential far-reaching implications of the majority’s holding. 

Accordingly, I dissent.

DORAN v. 7-ELEVEN, INC. 14789