[nagdu] Costco

[cheryl echevarria]

I had sent those to President Marion Gwizdala, President Margo Downey and Charlie Brown at the NFB Headquarters.


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> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:12:07 -0500
> From: julielj at neb.rr.com
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nagdu] Costco
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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