PHILADELPHIA - A disabled Philadelphia resident is suing a downtown establishment claiming disability discrimination.
Joyce Farria sued Smak Parlour in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on July 24, claiming violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to the suit, Farria relies on a wheelchair for mobility, volunteers for Liberty Resources Inc. (LRI) to help provide resources for people with disabilities, and avers that she is able to travel citywide to shop, visit friends, and attend school.
The suit states that the Smak Parlour store, selling clothing, jewelry, accessories and housewares, opened in 2005 at 219 Market St. in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood; and when LRI began a campaign to ask area businesses to make their venues wheelchair-accessible, contacting the defendant in early September 2014, it received no response. Farria alleges that she visited the site on or about July 23 to observe that a step at the entrance prohibited her from entry.
Alleging that the downtown building housing the store was constructed prior to the ADA’s 1990 enactment, the plaintiff asserts that the defendant has not undertaken any alterations to make the site ADA-compliant, claiming that the 4.2-inch high step is an architectural barrier preventing her from equal access to the store’s goods and services.
Farria seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, compensation for attorneys’ fees, and court costs. She is represented by Dynah Haubert and Rocco Iacullo of Disability Rights Network of PA in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case 2:15-cv-04105-PD.