[nagdu] Costco

[Julie J.]

I had remembered reading about Costco issues with service animals 
several years ago.  I've done a bit of poking around on the internet to 
refresh my memory and found the below:
There was a court case in 2004, /Susan Grill vs. Costco Warehouse 
Corp./, Case No. C03-2450Z, which went pretty badly in court thanks to a 
lawyer not familiar with ADA law.   the judge ruled that Costco could 
ask individuals entering their stores  questions not included in the 
DOJ's guidance on service animals.  This ruling in effect gave Costco 
the ability to decide whether or not a service animal would be allowed 
into their stores based on the perceptions of the questioning employee.  
Or at least that is my understanding of the ruling.  I'm also given to 
understand that this is only applicable to the judicial jurisdiction in 
which this case took place, the pacific Northwest.  So stores in other 
regions wouldn't be affected by this bad case law.

There is also Rebecca DILORENZO, Plaintiff, v. COSTCO WHOLESALE 
CORPORATION, Defendant Court: United States District Court, W.D. 
Washington from 2007.  I do not even know where to begin with this one.  
It is very, very clear that if you feel that you have been discriminated 
against and pursue legal action that you really, really, really need to 
have a solid case, a good lawyer, a trained dog and have actually been 
discriminated against.   To the best of my understanding this case 
further gave Costco the ability to question patrons about the use of 
their service animals and to decide if that use is worthy.

Anyway wanted to pass this along as food for thought.  I know Marion is 
working diligently with Cheryl on a Costco issue that happened recently 
and that he is aware of both of these cases.  I'm just pointing out that 
sometimes store policies, access rights, the ADA and state laws overlap 
and get tangled with each other so that what is actually legal and what 
is not isn't clear to even the best of lawyers.

I will be very interested to see how the current Costco incident works out.

Julie