Arroyo v. IA Lodging Santa Clara, L.L.C.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided July 7, 2021·No. 5:20-cv-08219·Unknown

Opinion

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN JOSE DIVISION

RAFAEL ARROYO, Case No. 20-CV-08219-LHK

Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED v. COMPLAINT WITH PREJUDICE

IA LODGING SANTA CLARA, LLC, Re: Dkt. No. 21 Defendant. Plaintiff Rafael Arroyo (“Plaintiff”) sues Defendant IA Lodging Santa Clara, LLC (“Defendant”) for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) (42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.) and the Unruh Civil Rights Act (“UCRA”) (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 51–53). Before the Court is Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint. ECF No. 21.1 Having considered the parties’ submissions, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion to dismiss with prejudice. I. BACKGROUND

1 Defendant’s notice of motion is paginated separately from the memorandum of points and authorities in support of the motion. ECF No. 21. Civil Local Rule 7-2(b) provides that the notice of motion and points and authorities must be contained in one document with the same pagination. A. Factual Background Plaintiff, a California resident, is a parapalegic and uses a wheelchair for mobility. ECF No. 18 (“FAC”) ¶ 1. Plaintiff claims that Defendant has violated—and continues to violate—the ADA and the UCRA. FAC ¶¶ 39–46. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that the website of the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara (“the hotel”), which is owned and operated by Defendant, violates the ADA’s Reservations Rule. 28 C.F.R. § 36.302(e)(1)(ii). Plaintiff alleges that, in April 2021, Plaintiff was planning to visit the San Jose, California area. FAC ¶ 14. Plaintiff alleges that “[a]mong the hotels [Plaintiff] was considering and would have liked to book was the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara,” which is owned and operated by Defendant. Id. ¶ 16. Plaintiff alleges that, on November 10, 2020, Plaintiff “went to the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara reservation website at https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/California/hyatt- regency-santa-clara/clara seeking to book an accessible room.” Id. ¶ 17. However, “Plaintiff found that there was insufficient data or details about the accessible guestrooms to give him the ability to independently assess whether any of the guestrooms worked for him.” Id. ¶ 19. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that the hotel’s website listed the following as accessible hotel areas: (1) public restrooms; (2) restaurants; (3) swimming pool; (4) concierge desk; (5) public entrance; (6) fitness center/exercise facilities; (7) business center; and (8) registration desk. Id. Plaintiff alleges that the hotel’s website listed the following as accessible hotel parking and transportation: (1) van-accessible self-parking; and (2) self-parking for cars. Id. Plaintiff alleges that the hotel’s website listed the following as hotel areas with accessible routes from an accessible public entrance: (1) spa; (2) restaurants; (3) registration area; (4) fitness center/exercise facilities; (5) guestrooms; (6) meeting room/ballroom area; (7) business center; and (8) swimming pool. Id. Plaintiff alleges that the hotel’s website also has an “ADA” column that lists the following features: (1) emergency strobe light and strobe light smoke detector; (2) cordless phone; (3) closed-captioned TV; (4) wide doors; (5) lowered thermostat and light switches; (6) lowered peephole and door latch; and (7) accessible bathroom. Id. ¶ 23. Finally, Plaintiff alleges that the hotel’s website lists the following under “Accessibility for Guest Rooms and Meetings”: (1) assistive listening devices for meetings provided upon request; (2) accessible guest rooms with mobility features that have doorways with 32in (0.81m) of clear width; (3) text telephone TTY; (4) closed caption or closed captioning decoders for guest room televisions. Id. ¶ 25. Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff needs to know the following information about a hotel room: (1) if the door has at least 32 inches of clearance so he can get in; (2) if there is at least 30 inches width on the side of the bed so the wheelchair can pull up next to the bed for transfer; (3) if the toilet seat height is between 17 and 19 inches and has two grab bars as required by the ADA; (4) if the sink is at a height, width, and depth and has under-sink plumbing wrapped so Plaintiff can use it; and (5) what kind of shower is there, whether the shower has a seat, whether there are grab bars, whether there is a detachable hand-held wand, and that the accessories are 48 inches or lower. Id. ¶ 28. Plaintiff alleges that this information was not present on the hotel’s website. Id. ¶ 32. Plaintiff alleges that the lack of information on the hotel’s website “created difficulty and discomfort for the Plaintiff and deterred him from booking a room.” Id. ¶ 32. Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff “will use the hotel’s website reservation system to book a room and travel to the [hotel] when it has been represented to him that the hotel’s website reservation system is accessible.” Id. ¶ 35. B. Procedural History On November 23, 2020, Plaintiff filed a Complaint in the instant case. ECF No. 1. On January 19, 2021, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint, ECF No. 14, and a request for judicial notice, ECF No. 15. On February 10, 2021, Plaintiff filed the First Amended Complaint. ECF No. 18 (“FAC”). On February 12, 2021, the Court denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss as moot. ECF No. 20. On February 24, 2021, Defendant filed the instant motion to dismiss, ECF No. 21 (“Mot.”), and a request for judicial notice, ECF No. 21-1. On March 10, 2021, Plaintiff filed an opposition. ECF No. 23. On March 17, 2021, Defendant filed a reply, ECF No. 23, and an additional request for judicial notice, ECF No. 23-1. Defendant requests judicial notice of (1) a list of the approximately 398 cases that Plaintiff has filed in California federal and state courts according to PACER; (2) public webpages on Defendant’s website that are referenced in Plaintiff’s complaint; (3) a copy of public webpages on Defendant’s website as they appeared on October 22, 2020, archived by the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine; and (4) copies of court filings in other district court cases. ECF Nos. 21-1, 23- 1. Plaintiff does not oppose Defendant’s request. The Court may take judicial notice of matters that are either “generally known within the trial court’s territorial jurisdiction” or “can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.” Fed. R. Evid. 201(b). Moreover, courts may consider materials referenced in the complaint under the incorporation by reference doctrine, even if a plaintiff failed to attach those materials to the complaint. Knievel v. ESPN, 393 F.3d 1068, 1076 (9th Cir. 2005). Public records and documents on publicly available websites are proper subjects of judicial notice. See, e.g., Calhoun v. Google LLC, --- F. Supp. 3d ---, 2021 WL 1056532, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 17, 2021) (collecting cases and taking judicial notice of public records and publicly available websites); Brown v. Google LLC, --- F. Supp. 3d ---, 2021 WL 949372, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 12, 2021) (taking judicial notice of publicly available websites, including publicly available websites archived using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine). Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s request for judicial notice. A. Motion to Dismiss Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) A motion to dismiss pursuant to

Arroyo v. IA Lodging Santa Clara, L.L.C., (N.D. Cal. 2021).

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