When Georgetown University student Taylor Price decided to visit a bar on M Street last semester, he was expecting a typical night out with friends. Not long after he entered the building, however, a confrontation with the manager prompted Prince to file a headline-making lawsuit.
Price, who became a quadriplegic after a 2004 diving accident, filed a lawsuit Sept. 9 against Mr. Smith’s bar and restaurant on the grounds that they allegedly violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the D.C. Human Rights Act.
When Price, a senior in Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, entered Mr. Smith’s on Jan. 23, the bar’s manager told him his wheelchair was a fire hazard and he would have to either sit in a corner or leave the building altogether, Price said.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me in any place I’ve ever been in my life,” he said.
After being in Mr. Smiths about two minutes, Price and his friends decided to move closer to the piano player at the back of the bar. As they attempted to make their way back, however, the manager stopped Price and asked him what he was doing. The manager then said that the bar was too crowded and Price could not go any further inside.
“Upon hearing that, I was just kind of really shocked that someone would ... use those words and even think about actually preventing me from going to the back,” Price said.
When one of Price’s friends told the manager he was not allowed to limit Price’s mobility because of his wheelchair, the manager said Price could sit in a corner in the front of the building. Price continued to move toward the back of the bar, upon which a bouncer intercepted him and kicked him out of the building.
As he left, Prince saw the bouncer letting more able-bodied people into the bar, which made him feel that the manager’s claim of overcrowding was really just discrimination.
“People with disabilities have to work too hard to get to a point where they feel comfortable going out in various social settings,” he said. “That’s why I went forward with [the lawsuit], so no person with disabilities will ever be treated like this again.”
D.C. law firm Venable LLP is working with a civil advocacy organization, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, to represent Price in his lawsuit. Both organizations have taken on the case pro bono.
Elaine Gardner, director of the Committee’s Disability Rights Project, said the organization took Price’s case because it is clear he was ejected from the bar because of his disability.
“It’s such a[n] egregious example of discrimination, of the exclusion of someone with a disability because of their disability,” Gardner said. “We thought it was important to send the message to places of public accommodation in the city that they can’t exclude based on disability.”
Juan Andino, manager of Mr. Smith’s, denied that the bar excluded patrons on this basis.
“We don’t discriminate,” he said. “We’ve been in business for 40 years and we don’t discriminate.”
Both the ADA and the D.C. Human Rights Act prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, Gardner said. Mr. Smith’s violated this prohibition by removing Price from the bar while continuing to let able-bodied people in.
According to the ADA Web site, any person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits his or her life activities is protected against discrimination in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation and telecommunications.
Similarly, the D.C. Human Rights Act states that people with disabilities are among those granted an equal opportunity to participate in aspects of life including, but not limited to, places of public accommodation, resort or amusement, according to the D.C. Office of Human Rights Web site.
Stacia Klim, a junior in the Kogod School of Business who uses a wheelchair, said she commended and fully supported Price’s efforts to win his lawsuit.
“I’m shocked,” she said. “It’s definitely discrimination and he should definitely pursue it because it’s not fair.”
Klim said she has not had any experiences similar to Price’s, but she does sometimes face issues of handicap accessibility.
“I think that’s one of the biggest barriers, is why there’s not more awareness or more ramps, more accessible things, because people don’t want to always fight it,” she said. “So I really support him in what he’s doing because it’s difficult.”
The Committee has taken on many cases of wheelchair inaccessibility, but Price’s type of case is unique, Gardner said.
“I’ve never heard of a case where someone was ejected for being a fire hazard,” she said. “It’s kind of strange and ludicrous.”
Emily Schulte, a senior in AU’s School of International Service, said she agreed that Price’s case is one of discrimination.
“Fire hazards are a serious thing, but it seems to me like maybe [Mr. Smith’s] should re-design their bar so that wheelchairs can fit in and out without being a fire hazard,” she said.
One of the reasons Price filed his lawsuit is to bring the issue of discrimination against disabled people out into the light, he said.
“I would encourage students at American, just like they are here at Georgetown, to consider their daily treatment of all human beings, especially those with disabilities, and realize that we’re all the same, just like everyone else,” Price said.
You can reach this staff writer at mkendall@theeagleonline.com.
