Owners of the Hitching Post Restaurant in Casmalia hope a recent federal court decision in Los Angeles will help the popular local dining spot avoid paying thousands of dollars in damages for alleged disability-access violations.

A jury in U.S. District Court last month unanimously found Cable's Restaurant in Woodland Hills not liable for violations alleged in a lawsuit by Jarek Molski, a paraplegic who has sued hundreds of businesses across the state for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The case is the first time Molski has gone to trial and lost, said Bakersfield attorney Craig Beardsley, who defended Cable's.

When Terri Stricklin, general manager of the Hitching Post, learned of the victory, she sent flowers to the Woodland Hills restaurant. Her restaurant was sued for technical violations of the ADA, though she claims the restaurant is fully accessible. Like Cable's Restaurant, she is refusing to settle.

Most businesses settle because it's less expensive than going to court. The Hitching Post in Buellton, owned by Stricklin's brother Frank Ostini, settled and put money into repairs of ADA problems that Ostini described as minor.

"For me it looked like it would cost more to litigate," Ostini said. "It's just not right. But I couldn't afford to fight it."

Tom Frankovich, Molski's attorney, said he will file an appeal of the Cable's decision and expects it to be overturned. Local businesses that Molski has sued should not see the decision as a beacon of hope, he said.

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"If they're a lay person and they think that this is some kind of a signal that they are going to win, they are significantly mistaken," Frankovich said.

Molski, who lives in Woodland Hills, has sued dozens of Central Coast businesses, from the Santa Ynez Valley to Paso Robles, for alleged violations of the ADA. Among them are Firestone, Fess Parker and Kalyra wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley, Cambria Winery in northern San Luis Obispo County, and Fosters Freeze restaurants in San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.

A provision of California state law known as the Unruh Act allows Molski to demand $4,000 in damages per violation, per day.

Molski has said in the past that an average settlement is $20,000. He testified in the Los Angeles trial that he personally nets an average of $4,000 per settlement, after paying attorney's fees, Beardsley said.

"There appeared to be 200 active cases ongoing at a time. You could extrapolate that out to $800,000 a year," Beardsley said.

"The clients felt morally obligated (to go to trial) because they were sick and tired of what they perceived as a professional plaintiff."

At trial, Beardsley characterized Molski and Frankovich, as well as Rick Sarantschin, who takes measurements at each business to find violations, and Michael Beall, a contractor who offers to fix the violations, as a business team.

"We argued that this was a business and this was the team, they made a living on it," Beardsley said.

The ADA is designed to protect individuals, not businesses, from disability-access violations, he argued.

"We were able to find 374 lawsuits by 0ct. 8, 2004," Beardsley said. "We know that more cases had been filed but we didn't know how many."

As of Friday, 528 cases were listed under Molski's name in federal civil courts.

But Frankovich says the number of cases doesn't matter.

"Their argument is that he's litigious, but you can't hold that against him because you have to follow the law," Frankovich said.

For Cable's, going to court was cheaper than settling - at least so far. Molski had demanded $65,000 from the restaurant, plus more from two other restaurants owned by the same people, Beardsley said. He would not characterize his attorney's fees, but said they were far less than $65,000.

But for the Hitching Post, going to trial will not cost less than settling, Stricklin said.

"It would have been cheaper to settle, Absolutely," Stricklin said. "(But) what he is doing isn't right. It's not about access, it's about money."

"We decided it was time somebody fought him, and there are more and more businesses stepping up and doing the same thing," she said.

Also fighting Molski in court is Harmony Cellars in northern San Luis Obispo County. Winery owner Chuck Mulligan sees the L.A. decision as a good sign, but isn't counting on winning.

"You just never know. A jury trial is always a crap shoot," Mulligan said. "I think the public sees through this whole quagmire that's going on. They claim they are trying to do something for society but it's really just pulling money away from society that could be used for jobs," and other purposes, he said.

Molski's suit against the Hitching Post in Casmalia alleged a wheelchair ramp was too steep, and the bathroom wasn't accessible because the toilet was a half inch too close to the wall; and the sink was three inches too high, and the soap dispenser was too high.

Stricklin contends the bathroom is fully accessible.

"Our restaurant's accessible and has been for a long time. Our mother is in a wheelchair. Of course it would be accessible," Stricklin said. "Every customer we have that's disabled has gotten into our restaurant, and we've never had a complaint."

"I've talked to about five people in Solvang and Cambria who have been sued twice in the last year," Stricklin said. "They're stuck. Unless you close your doors, somebody else can come along and sue you, and that's why we're fighting. If they can see that we're not going to roll over and settle, they'll think twice about going to trial."

Frankovich shrugs off that characterization.

"If that's what they want to do, it's fine," he said. "I have no problem with it. I'm very confident that they'll lose."

The Hitching Post Restaurant has started a defense fund to help pay for the trial as well as to support efforts to change laws allowing plaintiffs to make large sums of money for access violations. For more information, visit www.hitchingpost1.com.

* Staff writer Erin Carlyle can be reached at 739-2218 or by e-mail at ecarlyle@pulitzer.net.

Dec. 4, 2004