Opinion ID: 3062245
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statutory ADA Violations

Text: Abercrombie argues that the district court erred by holding that a facility may violate the ADA even if it complies with the regulations regarding accessible design. Aplt. Br. 32-34, 47. It argues that no court has ever found a Title III violation based on a public accommodation’s design in the absence of a violation of the 1991 or 2010 Standards. Id. at 33. The Plaintiffs counter that whether the porch violates the broad statutory guarantees of the ADA does not depend on the porch’s design but rather Abercrombie’s use of that design. Aplee. Br. 53, 57-59. The United States, as amicus, sums up this “use” argument: The problem is not that wheelchair users cannot enter the store and access defendants’ merchandise. Rather, it is that defendants exclude them from a part of the store that defendants themselves have made a part of the shopping experience. Having chosen to imbue the porch with such significance, the defendants cannot, as here, exclude individuals with disabilities from it and consign them to a wholly different experience. U.S. Br. 14. Because Abercrombie “uses” its porches as the central feature of the “Hollister experience,” this argument goes, it denies disabled customers the full and equal enjoyment of that experience in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 12182(a). See 27 Aplee. Br. 58. There is a significant flaw in the Plaintiffs’ argument. Apart from its existence (a byproduct of its design and construction) Abercrombie does not “use” the porch at all. It is the porch’s design (as a two-stepped, elevated structure) that denies disabled persons access to the store through the center entrance; the Plaintiffs do not point to any distinct policy or practice of Abercrombie’s that can be called a discriminatory “use” of that structure. See Aplee. Br. 5-6 (“Because the Raised Porch Entrance is inaccessible to shoppers who use wheelchairs, those shoppers must use doors at the mall level that are located to the side . . . .”); id. at 47 (The porches “were constructed in violation” of the ADA.); id. at 50 (The porches violated the ADA “when built.”). Even the United States cannot keep this “use” argument straight: It first asserts that the “complaint is not the existence of an inaccessible entranceway but its idiosyncratic use as an integral part of the shopping experience.” U.S. Br. 12. It then does an about-face and states that the “claim here is that the defendants’ unnecessarily discriminatory design—which serves no functional purpose—makes wheelchair users feel unwelcome and excluded.” Id. at 17-18 (emphasis added). The fact that the Plaintiffs’ challenge the porch as it was built, calling it a discriminatory design, leads us to conclude that we are dealing with the design of the porch and the exclusive effect of that design. The sources the Plaintiffs cite bear out that the Design Standards are the appropriate measure of ADA liability 28 in this case. In Antoninetti v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that service counters at Chipotle restaurants violated the ADA. 643 F.3d 1165, 1174 (9th Cir. 2010). The case turned on the Design Standards, which require “equivalent facilitation” if counters do not meet certain height requirements. Id. at 1173 (quoting 1991 Standard 7.2(2)(iii)). The court held that Chipotle’s “policy” of showing disabled patrons samples of food and preparing food in seating areas was not “equivalent facilitation” because it denied disabled customers the full “Chipotle experience.” Id. at 1174. Chipotle’s “service or policy” violated the ADA, not because of a statutory guarantee of equal experiences, but because “it did not comply with the Guidelines.” Id. In Fortyune v. Am. Multi-Cinema, Inc., the Ninth Circuit considered a movie theater’s “policy concerning the use of wheelchair companion seats.” 364 F.3d 1075, 1078 (9th Cir. 2004). The court noted that the Design Standards were irrelevant because, unlike “cases that involve the design of a public accommodation under the ADA,” the case against the theater “concern[ed] a public accommodation’s policy regarding the use of that design (e.g., the use and availability of a companion seat).” Id. at 1085. The court held that the plaintiff established an ADA claim because the theater “employed a discriminatory policy or practice.” Id. (citing 42 U.S.C. § 12182(a), (b)(2)(A)(ii)). The Design Standards are also instructive. The purpose of the standards is 29 “to effectuate title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” 28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app. C (guidance to 28 C.F.R. § 36.101). A public accommodation that “complies with these guidelines” is deemed “accessible.” 1991 Standard 3.5. The commentary provides that A private entity that renders an “accessible” building inaccessible in its operation, through policies or practices, may be in violation of [42 U.S.C. § 12182]. For example, a private entity can render an entrance to a facility inaccessible by keeping an accessible entrance open only during certain hours (whereas the facility is available to others for a greater length of time). A facility could similarly be rendered inaccessible if a person with disabilities is significantly limited in her or his choice of a range of accommodations. 28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app. C, at 914 (guidance to 28 C.F.R. § 36.401) (emphasis added). Unlike the case in Fortyune, we are not dealing with a public accommodation’s use of a design (e.g., a distinct policy or practice concerning to whom an accommodation is available, when an accommodation is available, or what choice of accommodations is available), but rather the design itself (i.e., the form and shape of a structure that render it inaccessible). See U.S. Br. 17 (“[T]he claim here is that the defendant[s] [adopted an] unnecessarily discriminatory design.”). And Antoninetti counsels that, even when dealing with a “service or policy,” Design Standards specifically addressing an issue are a better benchmark than more general prohibitions found in the statute itself. See Antoninetti, 643 30 F.3d at 1174; see also United States v. Hoyts Cinemas Corp., 380 F.3d 558, 566 (1st Cir. 2004) (“[I]t makes more sense to focus upon a somewhat uncertain regulation directed to the very problem at hand rather than an even vaguer set of statutory provisions framed in more general terms.”). By their own terms, the Design Standards provide the necessary guidance required to build an “accessible” structure. The ADA itself makes this clear: § 12183(a)(1) requires new construction to be “readily accessible” except where it is “structurally impracticable to meet the requirements of such subsection in accordance with standards set forth or incorporated by reference in regulations issued under this subchapter.” 42 U.S.C. § 12183(a)(1) (emphasis added). In turn, the regulations assure that a facility is “accessible” if it “complies with these guidelines.” 1991 Standard 3.5. Of course, if an entity constructs an “accessible” facility, but takes affirmative steps to bar disabled persons from enjoying it, then it has violated the ADA’s prohibition of providing a separate benefit “on the basis of a disability.” See 42 U.S.C. § 12182(b)(1)(A)(iii). But that is not the case here. Abercrombie built porches that, as the Plaintiffs claim, were “inaccessible” from their inception. See Aplee. Br. 50. Such a claim must be evaluated through the lens of the Design Standards; were it otherwise, an entity’s decision to follow the standards and build an “accessible” facility would have little meaning. See United States v. Nat’l Amusements, Inc., 180 F. Supp. 2d 251, 258 (D. Mass 2001) (To hold that compliance with the standards is not sufficient to satisfy 31 sections 12182 and 12183 of the ADA “would render compliance with these regulations meaningless, because a fully compliant structure would always be subject to a claim under ADA § [12182].”). The porch’s design—and its secondary exclusive effect—must be evaluated solely under the Design Standards. The district court erred by imposing liability on Abercrombie’s design decision based on the “overarching aims” of the ADA. The dissent agrees with our major premise, that “we must look to the Design Standards to determine whether a defendant has discriminated in the design, construction, or alteration of a facility,” but disagrees with our conclusion that Abercrombie did not engage in a secondary discriminatory “use” of that design. The dissent posits that Abercrombie “uses” the porch as a “branding tool, display area, and customer lounge.” However, none of these “uses” are what deny disabled people access to the porch—it is the porch itself that effects that alleged injury. In fact, the dissent points out that Abercrombie has an alternative design for the porch, one that incorporates the “same surf-shack motif” but at “ground level.” By all indications, Abercrombie “uses” this design in the same manner as its stepped porches—as a “branding tool, display area, and customer lounge.” This “use” is not discriminatory in one instance and non-discriminatory in the other—it is the design that differs between the two porch layouts, and that must be the sole source of accessibility discrimination. The Design Standards specifically address that issue. 32