Long v. Coast Resorts, Inc.

267 F.3d 918, 2000 WL 33535716
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 3, 2001
DocketNos. 99-16468, 99-16497
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 267 F.3d 918 (Long v. Coast Resorts, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long v. Coast Resorts, Inc., 267 F.3d 918, 2000 WL 33535716 (9th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises out of a suit brought by two disabled individuals and a nonprofit disabled rights advocacy organization against the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada (“the Orleans”), which is owned and operated by the appel-lees. The suit, which was disposed of by the magistrate judge through summary judgment, alleged several areas of noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Appellants challenge the adverse summary judgment of several of the allegations of non-compliance, argue that their Nevada state law damages claim should have survived summary judgment, and ask for a recalculation of attorney’s fees. The Orleans cross-appeals the one instance of non-compliance found by the magistrate judge and argues that appellants’ appeal is not timely.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This suit was brought under the ADA’s enforcement provision, 42 U.S.C. § 12188(a), which incorporates the remedies and procedures set forth in the Civil [921]*921Rights Act of 1964.1 After a visit to the Orleans in the fall of 1997, the plaintiffs brought suit citing several ADA Accessibility Guidelines (“Guidelines”)2 and alleging five areas of non-compliance: (1) 819 of the 839 hotel rooms had bathroom doorways with a clear opening smaller than the thirty-two inches required by the Guidelines; (2) two of the four slot change kiosks3 in the casino did not have accessible service counters; (3) the employee work areas at the four change kiosks were elevated and inaccessible to wheelchairs; (4) two of the three casino bars did not have accessible bar counters or table seating; and (5) three of the nine pool cabanas were not located on a wheelchair accessible routed.4 The complaint sought declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and litigation expenses under the ADA and damages under Nevada Revised Statutes § 651.070 (“Nevada ADA”). The parties stipulated to all facts relevant to summary judgment and this appeal.

The Orleans moved for summary judgment and the plaintiffs cross-moved for partial summary judgment. Following a hearing, the magistrate judge entered judgment granting in part and denying in part both motions. On issues relevant to this appeal, the magistrate judge found that: (1) plaintiffs had not shown injury sufficient to continue with their damages claim under the Nevada ADA; (2) while the bathroom door width was a “technical violation” of the Guidelines, there had been “substantial compliance with the spirit of the law” and therefore no injunctive relief was merited; (3) wheelchair users were not denied “full and fair enjoyment” of the facilities merely because three of the nine pool cabanas were inaccessible; (4) the two inaccessible bars in the “pit” area were in violation of the ADA; and (5) the slot change kiosks were not in violation because supervisors were not required to enter the kiosks. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

ANALYSIS

I. Timeliness of the Appeal

The magistrate judge entered an “order and judgment” on December 31, 1998. An amendment in the form of a separate judgment correcting a few typographical errors was entered January 12, 1999. The Orleans contends that the relevant date of judgment is the former; appellants contend it is the latter. The issue is critical because appellants filed a Motion for Clarification on January 26, which would be timely only under the later date [922]*922of judgment. Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(4)(iii— iv) (party has ten days after judgment, excluding legal holidays and weekends, to file a Rule 59 motion and toll the appeals clock).

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58 requires that “[e]very judgment shall be set forth on a separate document.” Our case law requires a mechanical application of Rule 58 so as to avoid the inequity of a party being denied the opportunity to appeal because of a failure to realize which of several documents or docket entries constituted “entry” of judgment. See Beaudry Motor Co. v. Abko Props., Inc., 780 F.2d 751 (9th Cir.1986). Thus, we held in Paddack v. Morris, 783 F.2d 844, 846 (9th Cir.1986), that Rule 58’s separate judgment requirement was not satisfied by a district court’s seven-page order detailing facts and legal analysis, but instead only by its subsequent filing of a five-line judgment. Here, the “order and judgment” entered on December 31, 1998 was not a final judgment because it did not constitute separate entry of judgment, but rather contained facts and legal analysis. The district court entered its final judgment on January 12, 1999, when it issued a judgment on a separate document. Thus, this appeal was timely filed.

II. Bathroom Door Width

Guideline 9.4 requires that: “Doors and doorways designed to allow passage into and within all sleeping units or other covered units shall comply with [Guideline] 4.13.5.” Guideline 4.13.5 requires that such doorways have a minimum opening of thirty-two inches. It is undisputed that the doorway between the sink area (which is open to the bedroom area) and the room containing the toilet and bathtub/shower is only twenty-eight inches wide in the 819 “standard” rooms at the Orleans. The Orleans puts forward two arguments justifying non-compliance.

A. Applicability of Guideline 9.4

First, the Orleans contends that Guideline 9.4 does not apply to bathroom doors because the bathroom is not part of the “sleeping unit.” To support this contention, the Orleans points out that Guideline 9.2, which addresses requirements for accessible units, distinguishes sleeping rooms from bathrooms. The Orleans argues that the explicit inclusion of bathrooms in 9.2 leads to a presumption that the lack of an explicit reference to bathrooms in 9.4 means that Congress intended to exclude bathrooms from 9.4 altogether. The Orleans’s construction of Guideline 9.4 fails to comport with the language of the Guideline itself or the legislative history.

The Orleans’s construction of Guideline 9.4 is illogical and would render some of the Guideline’s language inoperative. The term “sleeping unit,” when used in connection with a hotel, implies the entirety of the individual hotel guest unit — the bedroom, bathroom, and other private spaces occupied exclusively by a guest. The fact that Guideline 9.4 refers to doors “within” sleeping “units” rather than “within” sleeping “rooms” signals that all facilities connected to the sleeping room are covered. In other words, a sleeping “unit” is larger than a sleeping “room,” not, as the Orleans suggests, smaller.

Even if “sleeping unit” does refer to just the sleeping area, Guideline 9.4 would still cover the bathroom door: the door from the bedroom to the bathroom is, indisputably, a door “into” the sleeping area from the bathroom, just as the door from the hall is a door “into” the sleeping area.

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Bluebook (online)
267 F.3d 918, 2000 WL 33535716, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-coast-resorts-inc-ca9-2001.