A federal judge won’t record the final out in a lawsuit accusing the Chicago National League Ball Club of being short on its supply of accessible seating for Cubs fans at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs and plaintiff David F. Cerda have gone back and forth in court since Cerda filed his initial complaint in December 2017. Cerda, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and requires a wheelchair for mobility, said the right-field seating area he formerly used became a specially ticketed area with a bar following renovations completed to Wrigley’s bleachers.
While wheelchair areas remain in the lower box portion of Wrigley’s stadium bowl, Cerda asserted the accessible seats were several more rows removed from the field of play than they had been prior to the 2014 overhaul, making it more difficult to watch the game, particularly when other fans stood. Cerda also claimed the ADA requires the Cubs to offer 217 accessible seats, while he claimed the Cubs only offered 42 such seats during the 2018 season.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso has refused to dismiss the action outright, a trend he continued in an Aug. 30 opinion partially denying the team’s motion for summary judgment.
The Cubs asked Alonso to reject Cerda’s allegations regarding the number and location of seats, including a contention the 2018 seating map violated the ADA. The Cubs also sought to dismiss his argument the Cubs should’ve conducted a separate lottery for playoff tickets in 2017 for patrons who needed accessible seating.
According to Alonso, Wrigley has 39,604 seats, and compliance with the ADA formula would dictate 210 wheelchair spaces. The Cubs argued the requirement should be 209, which Alonso said is an irrelevant distinction because the team’s filings show the stadium only has 188 seats designated as accessible.
“Defendant also put forth the opinion of an expert witness, who opined that Wrigley Field contains even more,” Alonso wrote. “The expert opines that Wrigley Field contains ‘204 accessible seats.’ Regardless of which number is correct and even if defendant had put forth undisputed evidence that each of those seats qualifies as a wheelchair space under the 2010 ADA Standards, it is obvious that defendant does not have the required number of seats.”
Since Wrigley doesn’t have enough accessible seats, Alonso said, the team also can’t win summary judgment on Cerda’s claim regarding how such spaces are distributed throughout the facility. He noted the Cubs said the team would add 24 more accessible seats before the 2020 season but postponed that effort after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a compliance review.
The team “also put forth evidence of where those seats would be located,” Alonso wrote. “The court will not provide an advisory opinion on whether those seats, if actually installed, would, together with previously-installed seats, qualify as horizontally dispersed under the 2010 ADA Standards.”
In July, U.S. Attorney Jon Lausch filed suit on behalf of the federal government, alleging Wrigley renovations didn’t comply with federal disability access law.
Alonso did dismiss the allegation concerning the 2018 seating map, noting the Cubs argued the map was compliant and Cerda didn’t address the issue in a response brief. The team also said its 2017 playoff ticket lottery complied with ADA guidelines, but Cerda’s “response to this argument is three lines long and cites no legal authority,” Alonso wrote. “This claim, too, is deemed waived due to insufficient development.” He dismissed both claims with prejudice.
Cerda is represented in the action by attorney David A. Cerda, of Chicago.
The Cubs are represented by attorneys Noah A. Finkel, Minh N. Vu and Kevin A. Fritz, of the firm of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, of Chicago.