A decades-old Sacramento, Calif. burger joint is shutting its doors for being out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act because the owner says he can’t afford to bring it up to code.
Ford’s Real Hamburgers has been slinging burgers, fries and shakes for years, but was hit hard in the recession. Now, KTXL-TV is reporting that a local attorney who makes his living filing ADA cases — many on his own behalf — is suing the restaurant — and Ford‘s can’t keep up.
“We scrimped and saved and cut down the staff. I’m down to six employees,” owner Hank Vereschzagin told KTXL.
As the station noted, Ford’s is indeed out of ADA compliance: There isn’t enough room to roll into the bathroom in a wheelchair. But Vereschzagin said he just doesn’t have the money to fix the more than 60-year-old building.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” he said. “I just know I can’t keep this open.”
Scott Johnson, the attorney filing the suit, didn‘t comment to KTXL about the Ford’s complaint, but he did speak to the station earlier this year when he was suing a diner.
“Being a quadriplegic, there’s nothing I can do about that,” Johnson said in February. “But these businesses that have structural barriers to access, that’s frustrating.”
Read more here.
U.S. Constitutional Free Press 
There’s a huge fact that’s been left out of this whole story. The ADA was signed into law in 1990 and businesses were given a window of time to make sure they came into compliance. In some cases, that window is as wide as 20 years. Surely, at some point in the last 22 years, money could have been put aside, even if little by little, to make this eatery compliant.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is.
Shame on the attorney ,he has nothing better to do than screw with people.
It is obvious the burger joint is hanging on by a thread,and now the final blow,being out of business .
He should take his misery to Bangladesh .
I am sorry but Jerry Silva if he like the place and went their alot needs to asses his values as a person to displace the owner’s that for years struggled and this guy that comes in often now has a excuse the pun a “beef” with them is an idiot. He just wanted the money and that’s exactly why for the very few we make laws that are causing the smallest guys that work hard their whole life to scratch out a living close their doors, Jerry go to some other country and live at least you be treated without any respect and not be able to sue over some stupid personal issue you believe takes away the rights from people like you that have lots of common sense and choose their means to cheat other hard working American’s out of their life, you have one so I hope you come to a curb without a ramp in Washington DC let’s see if the government put one in or you can shut them down, your an idiot.