A popular restaurant in California’s Bay Area is shutting its doors after settling a costly discrimination lawsuit — over its ‘Ladies Night’ promotion.
Lima Restaurant — a family-run Peruvian eatery in Concord, Calif., about 20 miles outside of Oakland — told patrons it will serve its final meal on New Year’s Eve because of the gender discrimination lawsuit.
Chef/owner John Marquez said the lawsuit, filed last year, has cost his restaurant tens of thousands of dollars — putting a major dent in the business’ cash flow.
“We haven’t fully recovered from the recent discrimination lawsuit related to our ladies’ night discount” as well as the escalating operating costs of the business, Marquez told KRON-TV .
The restaurant, which has been open for nearly a decade, held a once-a-week “Ladies Night” promotion — offering drinks and wine at half price for three hours to its female patrons — for the past several years.
Marquez said he believes that the people behind the lawsuit aren’t local residents, but “ambulance-chasing lawyers” looking to cash in the state’s law.
“It’s a frivolous lawsuit that took us down” Marquez told ABC7News.
The news of Lima Restaurant’s impending closure did not go down well with patrons.
“Promoting one gender does not discriminate against one gender,” John Dias, a regular at the restaurant, told KRON-TV.
“Hello, I’m a lady. If I want to go out with the girls, it doesn’t seem like a rude thing to do,” added Mel Ludehese, who was having a last drink at Lima with Dias.
Earlier this year, the Fresno Grizzlies, a minor league baseball team which serves as the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, was hit with a similar discrimination lawsuit after they allowed free admission for women as part of a “ladies night” promotion last year.
The Grizzlies were sued for $5 million, according to The Fresno Bee.
The plaintiffs in the Fresno Grizzlies case are represented by a San Diego-based lawyer who reached an agreement on a $500,000 settlement from the Oakland Athletics in 2016 after he filed a class-action lawsuit against the baseball team over a Mother’s Day giveaway of free plaid reversible bucket hats.
The attorney, Alfred Rava, claimed in the lawsuit that he was the victim of sex discrimination by the A’s because he did not receive a free plaid reversible bucket hat during a promotion at an A’s game on May 8, 2004.
In 1985, the California Supreme Court ruled that similar “ladies’ day” promotions at businesses such as car washes and nightclubs violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act of 1959.
The state law prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation and immigration status.
California isn’t the only state where the courts have ruled that “ladies night” promotions could constitute illegal discrimination.
Courts in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin have ruled on cases where gender-based promotions were deemed illegal.
