On February 4, 2015, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), on behalf of its members, and an individual plaintiff, on behalf of herself and a proposed class of individuals with mobility disabilities, filed this class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the defendant, a hotel operator that allegedly failed to provide accessible transportation services to disabled guests, as required by the ADA. The requested class certification consisted of "individuals who use wheelchairs or scooters for mobility who have been, or in the future will be, denied the full and equal enjoyment of transportation services offered to guests at hotels owned and/or operated by Sage because of the lack of equivalent accessible transportation services at those hotels. The plaintiffs sought reasonable accommodation under the ADA though wheelchair-accessible transportation services equivalent to the transportation services provided to non-disabled guests at the defendant's hotels. The case was assigned to Judge Robert E. Blackburn and referred to Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty.

This case was one of four class actions filed by CREEC against major hotel owner/operators (including RLJ Lodging Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, and Ashford Hospitality Trust) for disability discrimination with respect to hotel shuttle transportation. On March 24, 2015, the defendants moved to dismiss the complaint arguing that this case was one of four "cookie cutter" complaints filed by the plaintiff's counsel and that the complaint should fail for referencing the wrong entity as a defendant. Additionally, the defendants argued that the plaintiff's complaint was based on "pure speculation and guesswork," relied on conclusory allegations insufficient to establish any credible threat of immediate future harm, and did not plead a plausible basis for nationwide class relief. The judge denied the defendants' motion to dismiss, but granted one individual defendant's motion to dismiss himself as a named defendant from the case. 222 F.Supp.3d 934.

The parties entered into a confidential settlement agreement, within which the defendant agreed to direct its hotel-operating subsidiaries to comply with the requirements of Title III of the ADA concerning transportation services. However, the parties could not agree on the amount to be awarded to the plaintiffs for reasonable attorney fees and costs. The court granted the plaintiffs 242,049.37 in attorneys fees and dismissed the case with retained jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement. The case was closed on March 26, 2018.

The defendant was scheduled to pay the plaintiffs the required amount by April 20, 2018, but it never paid. Over the course of the following month, the plaintiffs made numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain payment from the defendant. On May 30, 2018, the plaintiffs filed a motion to enforce the court’s order for attorneys' fees. After the plaintiffs finally received the awarded amount on June 5, they withdrew their motion to enforce the order. The case remains closed.

Jenn Nelson - 09/28/2015
Esther Vinarov - 11/18/2018


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