Plaintiff
- Name: Sheila Biglang-Awa
- Filing date: July 29, 2019
- State of filing: California
Defendant
- Name: Escada America LLC
- Website: www.escada.com
- Industry: Apparel
- Summary: Escada America LLC is a wholesale distributor of women's, children's, and infants' clothing and accessories.
Case Summary
On July 29, 2019, Sheila Biglang-Awa filed a Complaint in California State court against Escada America LLC . Plaintiff Sheila Biglang-Awa alleges that www.escada.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0, Section 508 accessibility standard(s).
Case Details
Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:
- The home page has gmphics, links, and buttons that are not labeled or are incorrectly labeled, or lack alternative text ("Alt-text")
- Plaintiff encountered multiple unlabeled or mislabeled buttons and links.
- Plaintiff encountered multiple pages containing insufficient navigational headings requiring Plaintiff to expend substantial additional time to access information
- Plaintiff was unable to make a purchase because of an inaccessible checkout system
- Plaintiff was unable to find a brick-and-mortar location because the locations link was inaccessible to screen reading technology
Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:
- Violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code §51 et seq.
Plaintiff seeks the following relief by way of its Complaint:
- A Declaratory Judgment that at the commencement ofthis action Defendant owns, maintains, and/or operates its website in a manner which discriminates against the blind, fails to provide access to blind or visually-impaired individuals, and that Defendant took no action that was reasonably calculated to ensure that its website is fully accessible to, and independently usable by blind and visually-impaired individuals in violation of California's Unruh Act, California CivilCode 51, et seq
- A preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining Defendant from further violations ofthe UCRA, Civil Code 51 et seq. with respect to "escada.com."
- A preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make escada.com readily accessible to and usable by blind and visually-impaired individuals but Plaintiff hereby expressly limits the Injunctive relief to require that Defendant expend no more than $ 50,000 thereon
- An award ofstatutory minimum statutory damages ofnot less than $4,000 per violation pursuant to 52(a) ofthe California Civil Code
- An additional award of $4,000.00 as deterrence damages for each violation pursuant to Johnson v. Guedoir, 218 F. Supp. 3d 1096; 2016 U.S. Dist.LEXIS 150740 (USDC Cal, E.D. 2016)
- For attorneys' fees and expenses pursuant to all applicable laws including, without limitation, CivilCode 52(a);
- For pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law
- For costs of suit
- For such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper
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