City and County of San Francisco v. Grant Co.

Rosebud’s English Pub is a restaurant and bar in San Francisco owned by 370 Geary, Inc., a California corporation, and operated on prem ises leased from the Grant Company, also a California corporation. The two corporations (hereafter Rosebud’s) appeal from a superior court judgment ordering them to bring the restaurant and bar into compliance with state handicap access laws. Respondents are plaintiff City and County of San Francisco (the city) and interveners, on behalf of the state, the Attorney General and the Director of the Department of Rehabilitation (the state).

Background

The facts are undisputed. The restaurant came into being through an extensive remodeling of the leased premises in 1976 and 1977, for which the city building department issued a construction permit and conducted site inspections. Due evidently to the building department’s mistaken assumption that state handicap access requirements then in effect applied only to completely new construction and not to remodeling, the department never discussed the requirements with Rosebud’s before or during the work. As remodeled, the premises violated handicap access requirements principally in that telephones…