Tavarez-Vargas v. Culture Carton LLC

Background

Carmen Tavarez-Vargas filed the Complaint on November 23, 2021. The Complaint alleges that she is visually impaired and legally blind and that Culture Carton LLC’s website denied her equal enjoyment of goods or services because the website was not designed, maintained, or operated to be fully accessible to, and independently usable by, blind or visually impaired people who use screen-reading software.

The Complaint asserts claims under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York City Human Rights Law, and for declaratory relief. Culture Carton was served on January 12, 2022, but did not appear or answer by the February 2, 2022 deadline.

Motion and Court’s Order

After the court directed Plaintiff to move for default judgment, Plaintiff filed that motion and supporting papers on February 23, 2022. The court did not grant or deny the motion in this order.

Instead, the court ordered Plaintiff to file supplemental briefing by March 3, 2022, on whether Culture Carton’s website qualifies as a “place of public accommodation” under the ADA. The court identified this issue as potentially affecting whether the Complaint adequately alleges an ADA claim and cited decisions addressing whether websites are places of public accommodation when the businesses lack public-facing physical retail operations.

The court also ordered Plaintiff to serve Culture Carton by overnight courier with a copy of the order and to file proof of service by February 28, 2022. Plaintiff was required to serve the supplemental briefing and file proof of that service by March 7, 2022.