Gomez v. Skip Keyser Realty, Inc.
- Susan Illston
- 3:21-cv-07409
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Gomez v. Skip Keyser Realty, Judge Illston dismissed the ADA claim without leave to amend and the Unruh Act claim without prejudice.
Andres Gomez’s ADA and California Unruh Act claims against Skip Keyser Realty, Inc.; the ADA claim was dismissed without leave to amend, and the Unruh Act claim was dismissed without prejudice.
What happened
In Gomez v. Skip Keyser Realty, Inc., Andres Gomez, who is visually impaired, alleged that the company’s website was inaccessible and sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The court concluded that Gomez’s ADA claim did not meet Ninth Circuit requirements because he described the website’s real-estate information as the service itself, rather than as a way to access services at the company’s physical office. Gomez also said he had no present intention of visiting that office.
The court dismissed the ADA claim without leave to amend and dismissed the Unruh Act claim without prejudice after declining to continue hearing that state-law claim. Judge Illston issued the order.
The detailed version
- Gomez v. Skip Keyser Realty, Inc. · No. 3:21-cv-07409
- Susan Illston
- Apr. 26, 2022
Background
Andres Gomez sued Skip Keyser Realty, Inc., alleging that its website was inaccessible to people with visual disabilities. He asserted claims under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act. Gomez stated that he was visually impaired and that he valued the information in the real-estate listings on the website. He also stated that he had no present intention of visiting Skip Keyser Realty’s physical office.
The court had ordered Gomez to explain why the ADA claim should not be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and to provide a declaration describing the factual basis for the claim. In response, Gomez filed a declaration that the court found appeared to repeat a declaration filed in another case and that referred to a different real-estate company. The court nevertheless considered Gomez’s statements about Skip Keyser Realty’s website and services.
ADA Claim
The court relied on Ninth Circuit decisions stating that Title III of the ADA covers physical places open to the public and requires a connection, or “nexus,” between an inaccessible website and an actual physical place. The court explained that the Ninth Circuit found such a connection in a case involving a website and mobile application that allowed customers to order food from physical restaurants.
The court found Gomez’s claim different. Gomez treated the real-estate information on Skip Keyser Realty’s website as the service itself, rather than claiming that the website prevented access to goods or services provided at the company’s physical location. Because he disclaimed any present intention to visit the physical office and did not want to use the website to obtain a service or good beyond the website itself, the court concluded that he had not stated an ADA claim under the applicable Ninth Circuit authority.
Disposition
The court dismissed the ADA cause of action without leave to amend. It also declined supplemental jurisdiction—the federal court’s authority to hear a related state-law claim—over Gomez’s Unruh Act claim and dismissed that claim without prejudice.
Judge Susan Illston signed the order on April 26, 2022.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.