Forest Lawn Settles Suit Over Disabled Access

A South Pasadena woman who sued Forest Lawn mortuary to gain greater access for the disabled won a court settlement Thursday when the company agreed to institute training to assure more sensitivity toward the disabled.

Judy L. Klein sued the Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Assn. in August 1997, alleging that the mortuary hampered efforts of four family friends and colleagues who used wheelchairs and wanted to speak at her late husband’s memorial service.

The dead man, Thomas Klein, a polio sufferer who used a wheelchair for 44 years, was a longtime activist who campaigned for the Americans With Disabilities Act and who died in November 1996. Klein had requested to be buried at Forest Lawn, but his widow said she had to move his 150-guest memorial service because of the mortuary’s “careless attitude toward the disabled.”

Forest Lawn failed to provide wheelchair access and special equipment for a disabled speaker, including proper seating accommodations, Klein said. Forest Lawn officials also moved up the time of the memorial service from 11 a.m. to 9 a.m. days before the service, inconveniencing guests, she said.

Specifics of the court settlement were kept confidential.

In a statement, however, Forest Lawn Senior Vice President Charles Haupt said the mortuary had “devoted a great deal of time and resources to compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act since its passage in 1990.”

Klein said the ruling was a posthumous victory for her husband.