Adams v. Aqua 388 Disability Discrimination

Case Name: Adams v. Aqua Community Association, et al.

Case type: Discrimination and Harassment

Filed in: U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Docket: Case No.: Case 2:23-cv-02498-SB-JPR

Case Summary

On December 19, 2024, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California awarded Dr. Emma Adams $7.4 million in her claims against First Service Residential California, LLC, Aqua 388 Community Association, and Aqua Maintenance Corporation for refusing to provide Dr. Adams an assigned accessible parking space in violation of the Fair Housing Act. 

Dr. Adams is a tenured Associate Professor and uses a wheelchair accessible van because she is a paraplegic. The evidence showed that for more than two years, the Defendants failed to accommodate Dr. Adams’s request for an assigned accessible parking space in the garage of her home, the Aqua towers in Long Beach, California. As a result, she could not come and go freely from her home, causing her to feel captive and resulting in extreme mental, physical, and emotional distress.

An original trial on Dr. Adams’ claims was held in July 2024; Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight entered the case in October 2024, after the Court ordered a retrial.

In addition to $7 million in compensatory damages, the jury awarded Dr. Adams $400,000 in punitive damages.