Elia Haggar v. J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

Summary

On February 22, 2019, Elia Haggar, Kyo Hak Chu, and Valerie Brooks filed a Complaint in California Federal court against J.C. Penney Company, Inc.. Plaintiff Elia Haggar, Kyo Hak Chu, and Valerie Brooks alleges that www.jcpenney.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard(s).

About the defendant

J C Penney Company, Inc. owns and operates a chain of retail J. C. Penney's stores and a website where they sell a large array of products including bed and bath, appliances, jewelry, watches, accessories and bags, footwear, apparel, store locators, gift registry, portrait services, optical services, and beauty products.

What the complaint says

The problems the plaintiff describes with the website.

• Lack of Alternative Text (“alt-text”), or a text equivalent.
• Empty Links that contain No Text causing the function or purpose of the link to not be presented to the user.
• Redundant Links where adjacent links go to the same URL address which results in additional navigation and repetition for keyboard and screen-reader users; and
• Linked Images missing alt-text, which causes problems if an image within a link does not contain any descriptive text and that image does not have alt-text.

Legal claims

The laws the plaintiff says the defendant broke, called causes of action.

• Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
• Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.

What the plaintiff asks for

What the plaintiff wants the court to order.

• For an Order certifying the Nationwide Class and California Class as defined herein and appointing Plaintiffs and his Counsel to represent the Nationwide Class and the California Class;
• A preliminary and permanent injunction pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 12188(a)(1) and (2) and section 52.1 of the California Civil Code enjoining Defendant from violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act and ADA and requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make https://www.jcpenney.com/ readily accessible to and usable by visually-impaired individuals;
• Statutory minimum damages of $4,000 per offense per person pursuant to section 52(a) of the California Civil Code.
• Attorneys’ fees and expenses pursuant to California Civil Code §§ 52(a), 52.1(h), and 42 U.S.C. § 12205; E.
• Pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law;
• Costs of suit; and;
• Such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.