Multiple ADA Swimming Pool Compliance Lawsuits Filed

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Since the deadline for compliance passed on January 31, 2013, a number of lawsuits have been filed against several hotel chains contending their pools do not meet ADA requirements for disabled access.

In March, a total of 22 different lawsuits were initiated in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana by a single plaintiff, David DeBoard, against a bevy of Indianapolis area hotels. According to an analysis of court documents, the lawsuits all claimed in identical language that the defendant hotels had violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, stating specifically that the “defendant failed to have an appropriate pool lift.”

Two of these lawsuits have already been settled out of court — Conrad Indianapolis hotel on May 28, and Fairfield Inn on June 4.

Another plaintiff, Dana Bowman, has filed suit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, accusing a spate of local hotels for “failing to design, construct, and/or own or operate hotel facilities that are fully accessible to, and independently usable by, disabled people.”

According to court documents, Bowman called hotels asking if they had disabled access, and when told they did not, placed the hotel on the list of defendants to be sued, and then “independently verified the absence of pool lifts.”

In all of the lawsuits in Indianapolis, Texas and Minnesota, the different plaintiffs were represented by the same attorney, Eric G. Calhoun, of Dallas, Texas.

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