United States Of America vs. Aqua 388 Community Association et al

Case Background

On April 3, 2023, Plaintiff Emma Adams filed a Fair Housing Act Disability lawsuit in the United States District Court, California Central, Western Division- Los Angeles (Case number: 2:23cv2498). Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr was assigned to the case and lated it was referred to Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth

Cause

Dr. Emma Adams, a woman with paraplegia who uses a motorized wheelchair, purchased a condominium at the Aqua 388 Community in Long Beach, California, in December 2016. The Aqua 388 is a high-rise building with 556 units and 888 parking spaces spread across three underground levels. Dr. Adams' disability required her to use a modified van with a ramp that needed 8 feet of clearance on the passenger side to deploy. However, the parking space assigned to her unit, W-120, did not provide enough clearance for her to use her van safely. From January 2017 to June 2018, Dr. Adams made six formal requests to the property management for a reasonable accommodation. She requested an assigned van-accessible parking space. These requests were directed to various parties. They included Rebecca Hawkins (Management Agent), Christopher Harrington (General Manager), and the Aqua 388 Board of Directors. The defendants repeatedly denied her requests, citing various reasons such as first-come, first-served policies, the inability to prioritize her disability over others, and the lack of a "nexus" between her request and her disability, since she used a power wheelchair. For over three years, Dr. Adams had to search for avail