Chipotle’s Sued for Violating ADA

Back in 2005,  Maurizio Antoninetti went to Chipotle’s restaurant in San Diego, California.  Unable to see his food being prepared from his wheelchair, he sued 2 of the California-based restaurants.

Chipotle’s took action immediately and provided a written “Customers with Disabilities Policy,” yet it still violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

5 years later on the 20th anniversary of the ADA, the federal appeals court ruled that the written policy failed to provide disabled customers the “Chipotle experience” of watching their food being prepared.

The lawsuit comes from a wall in the restaurants that is too tall to allow customers in wheelchairs to see their food being assembled.  Prior to Mr. Antoninetti visiting the restaurant, their policy was to accommodate people in wheelchairs by showing them samples of food on serving spoons, in cups, or by holding the food with tongs.

For Antoninetti, the lawsuit was not about money.  He racked up at least $550,000 in legal bills, but is asking Chipotle for only $8,000 in damages.

The new policy that Chipotle’s devised in 2007 stated that disabled customers could be accommodated by providing samples of food in cups, showing them food choices at a separate table, describing the food preparation process to them, or a combination of the three.  The trial court rules that the new policy met ADA requirements, but the appeals court overturned the decision saying Chipotle did not product “equivalent facilitation.”

Chipotle’s issued a statement to a local news station, 10News: “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling. However, the matter is largely moot because several years ago, independent of this lawsuit, we retrofitted all our California restaurants with a new counter design that eliminates concern regarding wheelchair accessibility.”

“If that were true, why did they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars litigating this case?” said Vandeveld, the attorney representing Antoninetti.

She added the retrofits never came up in court.

“They’ve not once told us that they lowered the walls. I have heard that from you; I’ve never heard that from Chipotle,” said Vandeveld.

10News visited the Chipotle restaurant in California and noticed the wall where customers look over to see the food has been lowered. The old walls were 44 inches high, and the wall at the Hillcrest location was 36 inches, which is low enough for someone in a wheelchair to see over.

“If they have lowered the walls, that’s great. That’s what we’ve been fighting for,” said Vandeveld.

The appeal court remanded the case, so a new hearing will be scheduled.