Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Litigious disabled advocates badger lodging industry

the allegations

The American Patriots Advocating For Disabled Rights is accusing Budget Suites of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing enough parking spaces for the disabled; having stairs below legal standards and no elevators; having counters too high, and no pool access for wheelchair users.

Two Las Vegans are taking on Budget Suites of America as part of their federal court crusade on behalf of the disabled and could force expensive renovations on members of the state’s largest industry.

Michelle Joseph and Mark Allison and their nonprofit organization, American Patriots Advocating For Disabled Rights, are out to prove that Budget Suites is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Where the line is drawn for accessible accommodations is crucial in a town that prides itself on its hotels, motels and extended stay residential facilities. The duo’s group may be turning into one of the local hospitality industry’s worst nightmares.

In its most recent lawsuit, a core issue is whether four Budget Suites in Las Vegas — two on Tropicana Avenue and one each on Las Vegas Boulevard South and Rancho Drive — fall under the law as public accommodations.

The plaintiffs say they do because the facilities hold Clark County business licenses for “transient lodging” and are registered with the county assessor under “commercial motel” designations.

Budget Suites’ lawyers say they don’t because Budget Suites are, in effect, residential apartment complexes, which are not subject to ADA requirements. Budget Suites are available only for rent on a weekly or monthly basis.

Joseph and Allison, who both use wheelchairs, gathered evidence for their lawsuit by acting as “testers,” which the lawsuit says they did “for the purpose of discovering, encountering, and engaging discrimination against the disabled in public accommodations.”

They allege a laundry list of ADA violations at Budget Suites involving parking, accessible routes, access to goods and services, guest rooms and restrooms, and outdoor pools. Typical of their allegations is what they say they discovered at Budget Suites at 4205 W. Tropicana Ave.

They say they found:

• An insufficient number of parking spaces for the disabled and no accessible route from the parking area to the facility;

• Stairs below legal standards and no elevators;

• Counters too high; vending machine and recreational areas with insufficient access for disabled people;

• Designated disabled rooms that lack roll-in showers and an insufficient number of such rooms altogether;

• No pool access for wheelchair users.

Budget Suites is not the disabled group’s only target, though.

Federal court records show that American Patriots has reached out-of-court settlements of similar complaints it lodged against the Las Vegas Hilton, Super 8 Motel at 4435 Las Vegas Blvd. North, Blockbuster Video at 9240 W. Sahara Ave., and three rental suite facilities in Las Vegas owned by L.A. Wilshire Corp.

American Patriots also has pending lawsuits against Texas Station, Manor Suites at 7230 Las Vegas Blvd. South, and Siena Suites at 6555 Boulder Highway.

The group’s Las Vegas attorney, David Otto, says the city’s buildings, on average, are worse than elsewhere on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act because Las Vegas grew so rapidly since the early 1990s.

“Everybody wanted to put up everything as fast as they could to save on cost,” Otto says. “In the process, Americans with Disabilities Act requirements were not met.”

Otto also blamed architects and city planners for ignoring ADA requirements because “no one has forced them” to comply with the law.

But Steven Stefani, general counsel for Budget Suites parent Bigelow Cos., says the lawsuit is frivolous and that the plaintiffs have no genuine desire to effect changes at Budget Suites properties. He says the motive, instead, is to extract attorney’s fees.

“When the economy started to suffer, we began to see an increase in fraudulent cases against our company,” Stefani says.

Joseph and Allison make no apologies for what they did as testers. They portray the tester role as a noble one that they say benefits other disabled individuals.

The duo filed an amended complaint on May 3 in U.S. District Court against Budget Suites and its related companies. Budget Suites responded May 17 with a motion to dismiss.

The company derides the plaintiffs as “professional litigants that have created a cottage industry by exploiting Congress’ well-intentioned statute, the Americans with Disabilities Act, into an income-producing mechanism whereby the plaintiffs have brought many causes of action against over a dozen defendants solely to support themselves under a facade of disabled rights advocacy.”

Budget Suites also notes that its facilities do not offer services or amenities such as one would find at a hotel — each tenant has to take out their own trash, and there is no housekeeping or linen service for the standard rental fee.

“Budget Suites serves a need for residents of Clark County, Nevada, who do not wish or who are unable to enter into a long-term lease commitment,” the company states.

Established in 1987, Budget Suites also owns 10 properties in the Dallas area, two in Phoenix and one each in San Antonio, Texas; and Mesa, Ariz. The company is owned by Robert Bigelow, a real estate mogul who has also invested a fortune in Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas Valley firm that has launched unmanned modules into space and has announced plans to market an inflatable space station. The aerospace firm also wants to be the first private company to operate commercial passenger flights in space.

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