A popular restaurant in California’s Bay Area is closing its doors after settling a costly discrimination lawsuit over its ‘Ladies Night’ promotion.
Lima Restaurant — a family-run Peruvian eatery in Concord, Calif., about 20 miles outside of Oakland — told patrons it will serve its final meal on New Year’s Eve because of a gender discrimination lawsuit.
Chef/owner John Marquez said the lawsuit filed last year has cost his restaurant thousands of dollars in damages — causing a major hit to the business’s cash flow.
“We have not fully recovered from the recent discrimination lawsuit related to our women’s night discount, as well as the rising operating costs of the business,” Marquez said. told KRON-TV ,
The restaurant, which has been open for nearly a decade, held a “Ladies Night” promotion once a week for the past several years – offering half-price drinks and wines to its female patrons for three hours.
Marquez said he believes the people behind the lawsuit are not local residents, but rather “ambulance chasing lawyers” who want to cash in on the state law.
“It’s a frivolous lawsuit that has let us down” Marquez told ABC7News,
The news of the Lima restaurant’s impending closure did not sit well with patrons.
“Promoting one gender does not discriminate against one gender,” John Dias, a regular at the restaurant, told KRON-TV.
“Hello, I am a woman. If I want to go out with the girls, it doesn’t seem rude,” said Mel Ludesse, who was having drinks with Dias for the last time in Lima.
Earlier this year, the Fresno Grizzlies, a minor league baseball team that serves as the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, Faced a similar discrimination lawsuit Last year as part of a “Ladies Night” promotion they allowed free entry for women.
According to The Fresno Bee, the Grizzlies were sued for $5 million.
The plaintiff in the Fresno Grizzlies case is represented by a San Diego-based attorney Joe reached a $500,000 settlement with the Oakland Athletics. In 2016, he filed a class-action lawsuit against the baseball team over giving away free plaid reversible bucket hats on Mother’s Day.
The attorney, Alfred Rava, claimed in the lawsuit that he was the victim of gender discrimination by the A’s because he did not receive a free plaid reversible bucket hat during a promotion at the A’s game on May 8, 2004.
In 1985, the California Supreme Court ruled that similar “Women’s Day” promotions at businesses such as car washes and nightclubs violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act of 1959.
State law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, and immigration status.
California is not the only state where courts have ruled that “Ladies Night” promotions may be illegal discrimination.
Courts in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin have ruled on cases where gender-based promotions were deemed illegal.
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