Disabled Man Sues Red Onion Charging Access Violations

A paraplegic sued the parent company of the Red Onion restaurants Tuesday, alleging that its Woodland Hills restaurant violates laws requiring accessibility for the handicapped.

Evan Somers, who is confined to a wheelchair, said in his Superior Court lawsuit that he went to the Red Onion restaurant in Woodland Hills last month to have dinner and dance. Somers has won several prizes in dance contests for “upper-body” dancing, the lawsuit said.

The main entrance to the dining room is accessible only by stairs and Somers declined offers by the restaurant’s employees to carry him in his wheelchair down the flight of stairs, the lawsuit said. Instead, Somers entered through an emergency door in the restaurant’s cantina that set off a loud siren “attracting the attention of most of the patrons,” the suit said.

Somers discovered that the restrooms were not accessible because they are upstairs and that the dance floor was inaccessible because it is sunken, the lawsuit said.

He contends that the restaurant had been remodeled since it was built in 1970 and is subject to recent laws requiring accessibility for the disabled.

Ralph B. Saltsman, a lawyer for Red Onion, said the Woodland Hills restaurant is exempt from the accessibility laws because of its age, despite the remodeling.

Somers won $1,000 in damages in a similar suit against the Red Onion’s Marina del Rey restaurant, Saltsman said, and has filed similar lawsuits against at least two other restaurants.