Whitaker v. Slainte Bars LLC

Background

Brian Whitaker sued Slainte Bars LLC, described in the opinion as the owner of the Alhambra Irish House in Redwood City, California. He alleged violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act based on an alleged failure to accommodate his disability. Slainte Bars moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, specifically challenging Whitaker’s Article III standing to seek an injunction under the ADA.

The court had previously found that Whitaker’s complaint adequately alleged an intent to return, but it also found that Slainte Bars presented evidence creating a factual dispute about whether that intent was genuine when the lawsuit was filed. The court therefore held an evidentiary hearing at which Whitaker was the only witness.

Legal standard and procedural objections

To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must prove an injury that is concrete and actual or imminent, a connection between the injury and the defendant’s conduct, and a likelihood that a favorable court decision would remedy the injury. For an ADA Title III injunction, the plaintiff must also show a sufficient likelihood of repeated harm. The court explained that a past visit and encounter with an alleged accessibility barrier do not automatically establish standing; the plaintiff must show a genuine intent to return.

Whitaker objected to the evidentiary hearing, relying on decisions he said made the jurisdictional question inseparable from the merits. The court rejected those objections as both late and meritless. It held that whether Whitaker genuinely intended to return was separate from whether an ADA violation occurred, so the court could consider testimony and other evidence to decide the standing question.

Court’s findings

The court examined the facts as they existed on May 19, 2021, when the operative complaint was filed. It found that Whitaker had not proved a genuine intent to return to the Alhambra Irish House if the alleged barriers were corrected. The court noted that he offered no specific reason to return to Redwood City or to that establishment, and that he had settled on relocating to Sacramento.

The court also considered evidence concerning Whitaker’s other lawsuits and travel. It found that his testimony about traveling to the area to look for potential places to live was not credible in light of the circumstances of one trip, the approximately 560 cases he filed in the Northern District of California in 2021, other sworn testimony about his reasons for traveling to the Bay Area, and his later lease for an apartment in Los Angeles. The court emphasized that later-developing intentions to revisit businesses did not establish standing because standing had to exist when the complaint was filed.

Disposition

The court found that Whitaker lacked Article III standing to pursue injunctive relief under the ADA and dismissed the ADA claim for lack of standing. Because that lack of standing deprived the court of subject-matter jurisdiction, the court concluded that dismissal of the supplemental state-law claim was mandatory. The court did not decide whether Slainte Bars violated the ADA or the Unruh Civil Rights Act.