Johnson v. Hap Partners Palo Alto LLC

Background

Scott Johnson, who is quadriplegic, uses a wheelchair, and has significant dexterity impairments, visited Howie’s Pizza three times in 2021. He alleged that the restaurant’s indoor and outdoor dining surfaces lacked sufficient knee and toe clearance and that its sales counter was not wheelchair accessible. An investigator later measured the sales counter at approximately 45 inches high and found no accessible counter 36 inches or lower.

Johnson sued Hap Partners Palo Alto LLC, which the opinion says owns Howie’s Pizza. The Clerk entered the defendant’s default after the defendant failed to respond. Johnson requested an injunction requiring accessibility improvements, $12,000 in statutory damages, and $3,037 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

Jurisdiction and Default Judgment

The court found that it had federal-question jurisdiction over Johnson’s Americans with Disabilities Act claim and supplemental jurisdiction over his related California Unruh Civil Rights Act claim. It also found personal jurisdiction and proper service because Johnson personally served Howard Bulka, whom records identified as an authorized registered agent.

Applying the factors used to decide whether to enter default judgment, the court found that all seven factors favored Johnson. The court treated the complaint’s properly pleaded liability allegations and supporting evidence as true, but independently evaluated the requested damages. It concluded that the ADA and Unruh Act claims were legally sufficient and supported by the evidence, and that the defendant’s failure to participate made a decision after a contested hearing impossible.

ADA and Unruh Act Claims

The court held that Johnson had standing because he encountered the alleged barriers during three visits and sought an injunction that could remedy those injuries. It found that Johnson was disabled under the ADA, that Hap Partners owned a restaurant qualifying as a public accommodation, and that the inaccessible dining surfaces and sales counter were architectural barriers that denied him equal access.

The court also found that removing the barriers was readily achievable, meaning easily accomplishable without much difficulty or expense. Johnson proposed replacing or modifying the dining surfaces and sales counter, and estimated that the restaurant could become compliant for under $5,000. Because the defendant did not appear and did not raise an affirmative defense that removal was not readily achievable, the court ordered the defendant to remove the barriers. Because the alleged ADA violation also established a violation of the Unruh Act under the court’s analysis, the court found both claims sufficient.

Relief

The court granted injunctive relief requiring Hap Partners Palo Alto LLC to provide wheelchair-accessible indoor and outdoor dining surfaces and a wheelchair-accessible sales counter at Howie’s Pizza in Palo Alto, California.

The court reduced the requested statutory damages from $12,000 to $4,000. Johnson requested $4,000 for each of his three visits, but the court found that he did not explain why the repeat visits justified separate awards and granted damages for only one visit.

The court also reduced the requested attorneys’ fees after finding the requested hourly rates unreasonably high for the routine ADA litigation involved. It awarded $1,945 in attorneys’ fees. The opinion’s discussion states that the court awarded $872 in costs, but the final conclusion awards $837 in costs and calculates the total judgment as $6,782. The stated final judgment is therefore $4,000 in statutory damages, $1,945 in attorneys’ fees, and $837 in costs.