Adams v. Fazzio Real Estate Co.

268 F. Supp. 630, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1007, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8260
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 9, 1967
DocketCiv. A. 67-467
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 268 F. Supp. 630 (Adams v. Fazzio Real Estate Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Fazzio Real Estate Co., 268 F. Supp. 630, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1007, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8260 (E.D. La. 1967).

Opinion

RUBIN, District Judge.

The plaintiff contends that the defendants have denied him the right to bowl in their bowling alley and that this deprives him of rights granted him by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1 The central issue is whether a bowling alley in which a snack bar is located is a public accommodation within the meaning of the Act. The resolution of this issue turns solely on the interpretation of the statute.

Section 201 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 declares that all persons are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of any place of public accommodation as *633 defined in that section. 2 It nowhere reaches bowling alleys as such, and that portion of the statute that affects places of entertainment does not extend to bowling alleys. 3 However, the Act does define as a covered place of public accommodation :

"any establishment * * * within the premises of which is physically located any * * * covered establishment, and * * * which holds itself out as serving patrons of such covered establishment.” 4

Thus, if a covered establishment is located within an establishment not otherwise covered by the law, it may by its very presence make the larger establishment subject to the Act. The defendants operate a facility that they call a snack bar, and the plaintiff contends that this is a covered establishment, for the Act applies to “ * * * any restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, or other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises * * # ” 5

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The defendants, Fazzio Real Estate Co., Inc., Fazzio’s Recreation Center, Inc., and Dominico E. Fazzio, own and operate Fazzio’s Bridge Bowl (“Fazzio’s”), which is located on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in Algiers, directly across the river from New Orleans.

Fazzio’s is located off the West Bank Expressway (U. S. Highway 90), directly across the highway from the Algiers Fisher Project (a federal low-rent housing project) where the plaintiff lives. It is clearly visible to anyone traveling on the Expressway. However, a chain link fence six feet high separates Fazzio’s *634 from the Expressway making it accessible only from Behrman Highway.

Together with a number of other Negroes who reside in New Orleans, plaintiff went to Fazzio’s on March 30, 1967, to bowl. Defendant refused to let plaintiff or the other persons who were with him bowl because they were Negroes.

Fazzio’s is housed in a building containing 29,900 square feet. An area containing about 18,600 square feet is de-. voted to bowling alleys. An area of approximately 9,500 square feet is devoted to equipment counters and other facilities necessary for bowling. An area of approximately 1,200 square feet is used as a lounge for the sale of alcoholic beverages. The premises also contain a counter where beverages and food are sold. The plaintiff calls this a “lunch counter,” obviously because the Civil Rights Act applies in haec verba to “any lunch counter.” Signs in the bowling alley refer to it as a “snack bar,” and the defendants prefer this designation, obviously because it is not one used by the Civil Rights Act. For purposes of this opinion, this area will be called by the suitably neutral name of refreshment counter.

The area is approximately 37 feet long and 13 feet wide. It has stools for the seating of 15 people. The principal items sold are beer, soft drinks (including Coca Cola), hamburgers, hot dogs, coffee, and other similar items. Customers are not asked whether or not they live in Louisiana. Non-residents are not denied service. Fazzio’s does not advertise its refreshment counter service except by signs inside the bowling alley.

The refreshment counter is located directly behind the bowler’s end of the bowling lanes. They are fully accessible to each other, and they are not separated by a partition or screen of any kind.

Fazzio’s offers bowlers what it considers a unique service. Each lane is connected with the refreshment counter by an intercom, and a bowler can place an order for beverages or food without leaving his place at the alley. Such orders are delivered to bowlers by a porter. At the bowlers’ end of each alley, there is a space for the seating of spectators. Spectators as well as bowlers are allowed to take food and beverages from the refreshment counter to the seating area. Chairs in the seating area have special racks to hold beverage containers.

Fazzio’s urged that more than 50% of the sales made at the refreshment counter are sales of beer, therefore the facility is principally engaged in selling beer, and beer is not a food. This conclusion is sought to be supported by the decision in Cuevas v. Sdrales, 10 Cir., 1965, 344 F.2d 1019, cert. denied 1966, 382 U.S. 1014, 86 S.Ct. 625, 15 L.Ed.2d 528, in which it was held that bars and taverns where the sale of drinks is the principal business are not covered establishments. 6 Secondly, Fazzio’s urges that, even if the facility would itself be a covered establishment were it alone, it occupies only 2% of the space in the building, it provides less than 8% of the center’s gross revenue, and its operation is therefore purely incidental to the operation of the bowling alley, and hence it is not covered by the Act.

The bowling alley building also contains a “lounge area” which is leased to a third person. This lounge is devoted primarily to the sale of alcoholic beverages. The plaintiff urges, however, that if the bowling alley is a covered establishment, the lounge would also become covered; lunch counter brings in bowling alley; bowling alley brings in lounge. However, the operators of the lounge are not made defendants to this action.

*635 THE “SNACK BAR” AS A LUNCH COUNTER OR A FACILITY PRINCIPALLY ENGAGED IN THE SALE OF FOOD

Section 201(b) (4) [relative to an establishment which becomes a public accommodation because it includes a covered establishment] makes it clear that the mere physical presence of a covered establishment within the premises of a non-covered establishment makes the non-covered establishment a public accommodation.

The first question to be answered is whether the refreshment counter is a “restaurant,” a “lunch counter” or “other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises.” The terms “restaurant,” “lunch counter,” and “other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises” are not terms of art. They are words in common usage, and they are employed in the statute in their ordinary meaning. 7

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Bluebook (online)
268 F. Supp. 630, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1007, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-fazzio-real-estate-co-laed-1967.