NEW ORLEANS – A disabled resident of Orleans Parish alleges that The Boomtown Casino in Harvey is not up the American with Disabilities standards and seeks help from the court.
Wellington Ratcliff Jr. filed a complaint for declarative relief on March 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against Louisiana-I Gaming LP and Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. for alleged violations of the ADA.
Ratcliff, designated as disabled by the ADA, alleges that the defendants are owners and operators of The Boomtown Casino and Hotel located at 4132 Peters Road in Harvey. He asserts that he visits the casino often and plans on visiting it again in the near future. However, Ratcliff claims that on his most recent visit to the property, on or about February of this year, he requested an accessible-designated hotel room and was informed that no such room existed. Ratcliff asserts there are in fact accessible-designated hotel rooms available and that defendant’s employees were not properly educated or trained to provide accurate information.
He also claims to have experienced other accessibility barriers on the property, such as the designated parking spaces not having access aisles, impermissible cracks and gaps with the curb ramp meets the parking lot, no level landing space at the top or bottom of the main entrance ramp to the property, an impermissible cross slop on the main entrance ramp, noncompliance handrails, several business counters being too high off the ground, toilet seat dispenser being excessively high off the floor, gaming devices with fixed inaccessible seatings, gaming kiosk too high off the ground, and noncompliance grab bars inside of the toilet stalls. Ratcliff alleges that these barriers prevent him from accessing the goods and services of the property but they can be feasibly and simply fixed.
He is asking the court to declare that the property is noncompliance with the ADA, issues an order directing defendants to fix said accessible barriers, award him with the cost of the suit, and an award for any other relief deemed proper. He is represented by Andrew D. Bizer, Garret S. DeReus and Amanda K. Klevorn from the Bizer Law Firm in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Case number 2:16-cv-02556-SSV-SS