David Allen Gunther, who claims to be wheelchair-bound, is working overtime to ensure that small businesses in Southern California comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s tougher version, the Unruh Act.

Since 2003, Gunther has filed more than 200 lawsuits against small businesses for violations that have included accessibility barriers, no designated handicapped parking, heavy bathroom doors, or toilet paper dispensers mounted out of easy reach. Each violation carries a $US4,000 fine. For all his hard work, it is estimated that Gunther has received more than $US400,000 in the last 36 months, mostly from mom-and-pop shops.
According to reports, Gunther’s propensity to sue has come under investigation. In early September, many small business owners, who claim to be Gunther’s victims, met with District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to ask his office to look into what they deem to be extortionist tactics.

Examples include a lawsuit against a flower and gift shop owner for failure to have a wheelchair ramp. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed as the owner herself lived with only one leg, was confined to a wheelchair and had a ramp built long before the lawsuit was filed. In another suit, Gunther charged that a local car wash was in violation because he found the bathroom mirror mounted a few inches too high for him to “preen” himself.

The business owners also expressed frustration that their shops had been approved by city inspectors and yet they were still sued by Gunther. “Protecting business owners against frivolous lawsuits is an important priority in my office,” Rackauckas wrote in a letter.

A local newspaper’s investigation turned up quite a record for Gunther, including “evidence that not only has he exaggerated his reliance on a wheelchair, but he’s also whitewashed his own history of chronic unemployment, multiple drug addictions, narcotics trafficking, assaults, petty thefts, burglaries, a decade of missed child support payments, and more than a dozen arrests in jail.”

Gunther’s own lawyer, like so many businesses he has sued, is located on the second floor of a converted house that does not have a wheelchair ramp. According to the lawyer, it would not be practical to make his office accessible to the handicapped. Ironically, he has not been sued by Gunther.

—Source: OC Weekly (Orange County, California)