A lawsuit starts when a plaintiff files a complaint that identifies violations committed by a defendant. After a lawsuit begins, a defendant can ask the judge to dismiss the complaint as “moot ,” which means that all of the violations alleged in the plaintiff’s complaint are already fixed and are not likely to recur.
This argument usually does not work in web accessibility cases because websites are dynamic and future barriers can always be introduced. Sometimes, a mootness argument can work to get a lawsuit dismissed when the plaintiff does not challenge the defendant’s allegations.
In this lawsuit, a plaintiff, Luis Torro, sued Medbar Corp., a company that sells motorcycle products and is doing business as Richmond Honda House . The company does not have a brick-and-mortar store in New York State but they maintain a website.
The plaintiff claimed that the company’s website is inaccessible to people who are blind and low vision. The plaintiff alleged while visiting the website they could not buy a motorcycle helmet for a friend. He couldn’t navigate the website because it wasn’t accessible. They allege that the website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III.
Medbar moved to dismiss and submitted an affidavit from the store manager that all the alleged violations had been fixed and would not happen again. The court dismissed the case.
Thomas Logan: Hello, everyone. This is Thomas Logan from Equal Entry here with Ken Nakata of Converge Accessibility. In this episode of A11yInsights, we’re talking about an example of mootness claims. Ken wrote about this topic in his legal update for May 2024, and we want to explore the topic further.
