Estevez v. Kari Gran, Inc.

Background

Plaintiff Arturo Estevez brought a putative class action against Kari Gran, Inc. under, among other provisions, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Kari Gran sought a pre-motion conference concerning an anticipated motion to dismiss. Estevez responded that he intended to amend his complaint and that holding a pre-motion conference before the amendment would be premature.

Arguments in the Plaintiff’s Letter

Estevez said the amended complaint would provide additional detail about accessibility barriers he encountered while using Kari Gran’s website to make a purchase. He also said the amended complaint would address whether the barriers continued despite Kari Gran’s claimed remediation, because continued barriers would undermine a mootness argument.

The plaintiff further argued that the website qualified as a place of public accommodation under the ADA. He also argued that a request for a reasonable accommodation was required only for a failure-to-accommodate theory, not for intentional discrimination or disparate-impact theories, which he said were also pleaded in the complaint.

These arguments were presented in the plaintiff’s letter. The order did not decide the merits of whether the website violated the ADA, whether the case was moot, or whether the complaint stated a viable claim.

Court’s Action

For the reasons stated in the plaintiff’s letter, Judge Katherine Polk Failla permitted Estevez to file an amended complaint before an initial pretrial conference or pre-motion conference. The court set January 7, 2022, as the deadline for the amended complaint and January 28, 2022, as the deadline for Kari Gran’s response.

The court adjourned the initial pretrial conference to February 2, 2022, at 3:00 p.m., and directed the clerk to terminate the motion at docket entry 7. This was a case-management ruling allowing amendment and postponing conferences; it was not a ruling on the parties’ underlying ADA dispute.