Licea v. Merryvale Vineyards

Summary

On March 16, 2020, Luis Licea filed a Complaint in California State court against Merryvale Vineyards LLC. Plaintiff Luis Licea alleges that www.merryvale.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).

About the defendant

Merryvale Vineyards is a family-owned Napa Valley winery producing small production lots from select vineyard sources.

What the complaint says

The problems the plaintiff describes with the website.

• Document language missing
• Linked image missing alternative text
• Empty links that contain no text causing the function or purpose of the link to not be presented to the user
• Missing alternative text which presents a problem because an image without alternative text results in an empty link.
• Empty or missing form labels which presents a problem because, if a form control does not have a properly associated text label, the function or purpose of that form control may not be presented to screen reader users.

Legal claims

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

• Violations of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.

What the plaintiff asks for

What the plaintiff wants the court to order.

• For a judgment that Defendant violated Plaintiff’s rights under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.
• For a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make the Website, www.merryvale.com, readily accessible to and usable by visually-impaired individuals; but Plaintiff hereby expressly limits the injunctive relief to require that Defendant expend no more $20,000 as the cost of injunctive relief
• An award of statutory minimum damages of $4,000 per violation pursuant to section 52(a) of the California Civil Code; however, Plaintiff expressly limits the total amount of recovery, including statutory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and cost of injunctive relief not to exceed $74,999
• For attorneys’ fees and expenses pursuant to all applicable laws including, without limitation, California Civil Code § 52(a); however, Plaintiff expressly limits the total amount of recovery, including statutory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and cost of injunctive relief not to exceed $74,999
• For pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law
• For costs of suit
• For such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper