Opinion
24-cv-00755-YGR (AGT)
06-24-2024
JACKSON SHERRY, Plaintiff, v. MONTAGE HEALTH, et al., Defendants.
DISCOVERY ORDER RE: DKT. NO. 19
Alex G. Tse United States Magistrate Judge
This order resolves the parties' discovery dispute at dkt. 19, directed to Plaintiff's motion to compel a joint site inspection of the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (“CHOMP”). The parties dispute the scope of the joint site inspection, which currently is governed by General Order 56 (“GO 56”). The Court grants Plaintiff's motion to compel in part, as follows.
Plaintiff seeks an order to compel the joint site inspection of several areas of CHOMP. Dkt. 19-1 at 2-3. The Ninth Circuit has found “[a]n ADA plaintiff who has Article III standing as a result of at least one barrier at a place of public accommodation may, in one suit, permissibly challenge all barriers in that public accommodation that are related to his or her specific disability.” Chapman v. Pier 1 Imports (U.S.) Inc., 631 F.3d 939, 950-51 (9th Cir. 2011) (quoting Doran v. 7-Eleven, Inc., 524 F.3d 1034, 1047 (9th Cir. 2008)). This includes barriers that Plaintiff has not “personally encountered,” although such barriers must be “related to his disability.” Id. at 1051.
The scope of a GO 56 joint site inspection is “the portions or aspects of the subject premises . . . that are claimed to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.” GO 56 § 7(b). This scope corresponds to item (1) in Plaintiff's enumerated list: “[a]ll barriers and areas identified in the Complaint.” Dkt. 19-1 at 2. Items (2)-(5) of Plaintiff's list, whether encountered by Plaintiff or not, are not in the Complaint. See id. at 2-3. GO 56 therefore provides no authority for a site inspection of these areas. As Defendants note, Plaintiff can request a site inspection pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 of areas not covered by GO 56. Accordingly, Plaintiff's motion to compel the joint site visit under GO 56 is granted in part, as discussed above, and the remainder of the motion is denied without prejudice. By July 24, 2024, Defendants are ordered to schedule the joint site inspection of CHOMP, to include all barriers and areas identified in the Complaint at dkt. 1.
The barriers and areas identified in the complaint appear to include the “garage and street level parking areas” (paragraph 12), the “curved ramp” and door to the Comprehensive Cancer Center (paragraphs 13, 17), the “path of travel” to the main entrance and the main entrance itself (paragraph 14), and those described in paragraph 21.
IT IS SO ORDERED.