Restaurant said youth wheelchair basketball team was fire hazard, feds say. It owes

A restaurant is accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by turning away a youth wheelchair basketball team in Tennessee, saying the wheelchairs created a “fire hazard,” federal officials said.

Good Times Restaurants, Inc. has now agreed to pay $352,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a July 30 news release.

McClatchy News reached out to Good Times, Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar and their legal team for comment July 30 but did not immediately receive a response.

The restaurant denies the allegations and said it was trying to accommodate the party “in full compliance with its legal obligations,” according to the settlement agreement.

In February, the basketball team visited Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar in Murfreesboro during a youth wheelchair basketball travel tournament to the area, officials said.

When the eight families arrived at the restaurant, the staff said the kids’ wheelchairs were a fire hazard, according to the settlement.

The restaurant was only half-full, and the families offered to sit in separate areas, but they were denied service, federal officials said. Some patrons left the restaurant after seeing what was happening, officials said.

The group eventually left and ate at another restaurant without a problem.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 stipulates that commercial facilities and public accommodations can’t discriminate due to disability.

Government officials accused the restaurant of violating the ADA, but the parties settled the issue without litigation.

As part of the settlement, the restaurant and its parent company agreed to draft new policies and ensure employees are trained on those policies and ADA requirements.

The restaurant will pay the eight families $34,000 each, in addition to an $80,000 civil penalty paid to the government.

“Children using wheelchairs should be able to eat at restaurants just like anybody else,” U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis said in the release. “We are committed to protecting the civil rights of children with disabilities, including the right to be free from discrimination by restaurants and other public accommodations. The settlement announced today does just that for the children denied service by Bad Daddy’s.”

Murfreesboro is about a 35-mile drive southeast from Nashville.