Southeast ADA Center
2007
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The plaintiff, Mr. Allen Fox, filed a Title III ADA disability discrimination complaint against Morris Jupiter Associates, L.L.C. (“Defendant”). Mr. Fox claimed that because he uses a wheelchair, he was unable to maneuver in and around the Concourse Village Plaza, a shopping center in Jupiter, Florida. Additionally he was unable to enter particular shops, such as Radio Shack and Cingular Wireless without assistance. Despite the Concourse Village Plaza location, about 25 miles away from his home, Mr. Fox said that he would like to continue to shop there because it was close to his work and some of his relatives. However, at the time of the suit, Mr. Fox no longer worked in Jupiter Florida; he worked in Juno Beach, Florida.
When Mr. Fox and his wife first began shopping at the Concourse Village Plaza, they always shopped together. He said that they had been visiting the shopping center for more than 7 years and during the course of that time, noticed several ADA violations. Such violations included an insufficient number of parking spots for individuals with disabilities, limited wheel-chair accessible paths from the parking lot to the shopping facility, inaccessible restrooms and other barriers that prevented entry into individual shops. Although he was always able to access the stores with the assistance of his wife, he was unable to do so alone. On two occasions, he tried to visit the shopping center alone. On his first visit, he was unable to enter the Radio Shack outlet explaining that he could not hold the door open at the same time he was trying to cross the door’s high threshold. In hopes that the barriers he encountered on his first visit were removed, he again tried to visit the Radio Shack outlet. He said that after a visual survey of the shopping center from his car, he realized that the barriers were still in place and thus did not exit his car.
https://adasoutheast.org/court-decisions/fox-v-morris-jupiter-associates
Keywords: credibility of claims, facility access, injunctive relief standing, public accommodations