A well-liked restaurant in California’s Bay Space is shutting its doorways after settling a expensive discrimination lawsuit — over its ‘Ladies Night’ promotion.
Lima Restaurant — a family-run Peruvian eatery in Harmony, Calif., about 20 miles exterior of Oakland — informed patrons it should serve its remaining meal on New Yr’s Eve due to the gender discrimination lawsuit.
Chef/proprietor John Marquez mentioned the lawsuit, filed final yr, has price his restaurant tens of 1000’s of {dollars} — placing a significant dent within the enterprise’ money stream.
“We haven’t fully recovered from the recent discrimination lawsuit related to our ladies’ night discount” in addition to the escalating working prices of the enterprise, Marquez informed KRON-TV .
The restaurant, which has been open for almost a decade, held a once-a-week “Ladies Night” promotion — providing drinks and wine at half worth for 3 hours to its feminine patrons — for the previous a number of years.
Marquez mentioned he believes that the individuals behind the lawsuit aren’t native residents, however “ambulance-chasing lawyers” trying to money within the state’s regulation.
“It’s a frivolous lawsuit that took us down” Marquez informed ABC7News.
The information of Lima Restaurant’s impending closure didn’t go down nicely with patrons.
“Promoting one gender does not discriminate against one gender,” John Dias, a daily on the restaurant, informed KRON-TV.
“Hello, I’m a lady. If I want to go out with the girls, it doesn’t seem like a rude thing to do,” added Mel Ludehese, who was having a final drink at Lima with Dias.
Earlier this yr, the Fresno Grizzlies, a minor league baseball staff which serves because the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, was hit with the same discrimination lawsuit after they allowed free admission for girls as a part of a “ladies night” promotion final yr.
The Grizzlies had been sued for $5 million, in keeping with The Fresno Bee.
The plaintiffs within the Fresno Grizzlies case are represented by a San Diego-based lawyer who reached an settlement on a $500,000 settlement from the Oakland Athletics in 2016 after he filed a class-action lawsuit in opposition to the baseball staff over a Mom’s Day giveaway of free plaid reversible bucket hats.
The legal professional, Alfred Rava, claimed within the lawsuit that he was the sufferer of intercourse discrimination by the A’s as a result of he didn’t obtain a free plaid reversible bucket hat throughout a promotion at an A’s recreation on Might 8, 2004.
In 1985, the California Supreme Court docket dominated that comparable “ladies’ day” promotions at companies akin to automobile washes and nightclubs violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act of 1959.
The state regulation prohibits discrimination primarily based on intercourse, race, coloration, faith, ancestry, nationwide origin, sexual orientation and immigration standing.
California isn’t the one state the place the courts have dominated that “ladies night” promotions may represent unlawful discrimination.
Courts in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin have dominated on instances the place gender-based promotions had been deemed unlawful.
