Sacramento Bee

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Last Updated 3:58 pm PDT Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

Marcos Bretón: ADA suit may not be as it seems

By Marcos Bretón - Bee Columnist

Some issues aren't what they seem.

Take, for example, the very real tragedy of Basketball Town closing its doors -- never more to offer basketball courts for kids to play hoops in a wholesome environment.

A bright light goes out in Rancho Cordova. An icon is closing. And wouldn't you know: a litigious disabled person is to blame -- or so we're led to believe.

The folks who run Basketball Town, the Folsom Boulevard sports center where more than one Kings player has held camps, have said legal fees tied to a disabilities rights lawsuit put them in jeopardy.

A Suisun City man, who is a quadriplegic, sued Basketball Town because he couldn't attend his nephew's 6th birthday party there. The festivities were on the second floor and Derrick Ross couldn't get to the party because there was no lift.

Here is where it gets political: Lawsuits involving the Americans With Disabilities Act are radioactive, because there's a cadre of lawyers who specialize in filing them frivolously to shake down business owners.

Insinuate that an ADA suit is causing the demise of a basketball mecca in a basketball town, and you have a hot potato.

It all makes for a great story that generates lots of outrage, but for one little hang-up: It doesn't add up.

Because not all these suits are frivolous.

How can you expect to run a business in today's world and not have second-floor access for the disabled?

However we may feel about lawyers, there are federal and state laws not only to ensure disabled access -- but to secure damages for disabled plaintiffs.

And that's another area where this story falls apart: There is no dollar amount for damages listed in Ross' lawsuit. It leaves it to the court to decide whatever is "appropriate."

The primary objective is to make sure a lift is installed in the building so everyone -- disabled and non-disabled -- can use the second floor.

"We have offered to cooperate in any way we could to keep Basketball Town open," said Paul Rein, Ross's Oakland-based lawyer. "Our lawsuit never asked them to close any portion of Basketball Town."

That sounds reasonable. Then you dig a little deeper and find there has been a legal dispute at Basketball Town between the landlord of the building and the tenant over who should pay for the lift Ross wants.

Filed in June, the cross-complaint pitted Sacramento Basketball Town LLC against its landlords, Barbara Hardcastle and the Hardcastle Trust. And then a property search on 11327 Folsom Blvd., shows that in 2006, the 50,000-square-foot building had an assessed value of $4.5 million.

So you're telling us that the people behind such an asset can't afford to spend $25,000 to $50,000 for a lift to comply with the law?

Then Tuesday we learn someone has offered to build a lift for free -- and it still might not matter.

Kim Dennis, general manager of Basketball Town, told The Bee his landlord says he is looking at other tenants.

Which brings us back to where we started -- to stories that aren't as they appear. This sounds more like a dispute between landlord and tenant -- with a disabled person and ADA laws tossed in as a diversion.

"They are making my client out to be a scapegoat," Rein said. Yes. This story stinks, but not in the way you thought.

About the writer:

·        Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com. Listen to him at 8:40 a.m. Tuesdays on NewsTalk 1530 KFBK. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/breton.