A federal jury in Los Angeles on Thursday awarded $9.25 million in damages to a disabled Long Beach woman, finding that she was systematically denied a handicapped parking space at a waterfront apartment complex for years.
The plaintiff, Emma Adams, is a tenured biology professor at Compton College who moved into the Aqua Towers, a luxury high-rise complex in downtown Long Beach, in 2017.
Adams is paralyzed and uses a motorized wheelchair and a modified vehicle with a retractable ramp that extends eight feet from the passenger side.
Adams’ lawyers say that of the complex’s roughly 1,000 parking spaces, only 72 are large enough to accommodate a modified vehicle, including 19 reserved for handicapped parking.
But according to court documents, Adams was denied access to a handicap space for three years by the building’s management company, FirstService Residential, and then by the Aqua Homeowners Association, the Aqua 388 Community Association and the Aqua Maintenance Association.
Adams wrote letters, emails and attended association board meetings to make her case, demanding proper enforcement of parking rules after residents parked in handicapped spaces without the proper placards or license plates.
“But they all said no,” said Brian Olney, an attorney with the civil rights firm Hadsell, Stormer, Renick & Dye, which represented Adams.
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At one HOA board meeting, Olney said, a member suggested Adams sell the house and move out.
“‘If you don’t like it, just sell it and get out; just sell your apartment and get out,'” he said.
Adams wasn’t given a parking space until 2020, two years after she complained to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
However, the space was not reserved and was also available to other disabled people. Adams was in the habit of waiting up to three hours on weekday evenings for a disabled parking space to become available, according to his lawyer.
“She would sometimes eat dinner in the car,” Olney said.
Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development officials ultimately sued the apartment management in 2023 for violating federal fair housing laws, but the suit was dismissed after a consent decree was reached in January in which Aqua Towers management provided sensitivity training to all employees and provided Adams with a parking space.
Days after learning of the government’s plan to settle the claims, Adams intervened in his own case and hired a private firm to take it to trial.
In her trial testimony, Adams detailed the impact it all had on her mental health: She became socially withdrawn and stopped seeing friends, and one co-worker, concerned about her health, applied for a welfare check.
“This is bullying, this is cruel and this is extremely heinous,” Olney said.
After a week-long trial in Los Angeles, a jury awarded Adams $4 million in emotional damages and an additional $5.25 million in punitive damages to the two HOAs and FirstService.
Aqua Towers on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
A HUD representative declined to comment on the ruling.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing in the matter, according to federal court documents. Attorneys representing FirstService did not issue a statement in time for the case to be released to press.
“In this case, the defense had multiple opportunities to do the right thing and follow the law, and they repeatedly refused to do so,” Olney said.
In a statement after last week’s verdict, Ms Adams said she was relieved by the court’s decision but frustrated by the government’s response. She thanked the jury and rebuked her housemate, whom she saw as an accomplice in her years of fighting for a parking space.
“Disability rights are human rights,” Adams wrote. “Holding accountable defendants who knowingly discriminate is a real deterrent that serves the public interest. When companies promote and support employees who break the law and discriminate against protected classes, instead of reprimanding them, they only encourage those individuals and others to do it again.”