Hotel That Barred Her Will Hold Seminar on Handicapped : Blind Attorney Favors Education Over Litigation

Malissa Hathaway McKeith had met them all before: hotel clerks who tried to stick her in “crummy” rooms with no air conditioning or no paint, maitre d’s who seated her at a table next to the kitchen or refused her a table at all.

But this was home turf--Bernard’s restaurant in the Biltmore Hotel where she had been more than 30 times, usually on business. And last March, when Bernard’s manager refused to seat McKeith and her companions, “I got the strong impression he did not think anyone in our party was anyone you had to reckon with.”

He was wrong. The manager who broke the law in refusing to seat McKeith was not just turning away a 28-year-old partly sighted corporate lawyer, he was turning away her guide dog, a golden retriever known around McKeith’s downtown law office as Brandeis--after the U.S. Supreme Court justice.

The restaurant manager who told McKeith she could leave her dog outside does not work at the Biltmore anymore.

But today, in a novel way of defusing what could have been a long and expensive lawsuit, the Biltmore is hosting a morning seminar--with continental breakfast--for more than 150 hoteliers and restaurateurs, and no less an authority than Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp will detail for them the laws on handicapped rights in California.

‘Do a Lot More’

“We felt that even though filing the suit and our eventual victory would get some publicity, we could really do a lot more in educating the hotel and restaurant owners and the general public by doing it this way,” said McKeith’s attorney, Charlotte Ashmun, who used to raise guide dog puppies back in 4-H.

In the letter to restaurateurs, Biltmore General Manager Lee C. Jenks noted, “A recent incident at my own hotel, which involved a legally blind woman being refused service due to her accompanying guide dog, indicated a lack of awareness. Discrimination against the disabled is illegal and must be prevented.”

There is even part of the Business and Professional Code that allows liquor licenses to be restricted or revoked because of sex, race or handicapped discrimination, Ashmun said.

Biltmore spokeswoman Victoria King said, “We were just lucky they were real agreeable and wanted to work with it. It’s a good example of how you can turn it around and benefit everyone involved.”

“I do think it turned out fine,” said McKeith--especially if those who attend “actually go back and do something.”

But the problem is deeper than one seminar.

“I’ve been seated next to a million kitchens,” she sighed, by people who observe the law--but grudgingly.

In 10 years of owning guide dogs, McKeith said there have been “ludicrous stories in hindsight, but not funny at all when it happened,” like maitre d’s who make “obnoxious” scenes and then finally seat her, embarrassing her in front of clients and colleagues and dates.

At one Las Vegas hotel, a clerk refused to give her a new room until other people waiting behind her in line heard the problem and threatened to cancel their reservations unless she was accommodated, she said.

Not long ago a trendy nightclub refused to admit her because of Brandeis. When her lawyer-companions all left their business cards, the manager called frantically in the small hours of the morning to apologize.

‘Because of Who We Are’

“But that’s all because of who we were and (the club management) worrying about the consequences,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s like, ‘Who cares? What is this woman ever going to do?’

“If I weren’t an attorney and weren’t well connected, nobody would have reckoned with me at all.”

Her first guide dog, which died recently, “always knew people were bitching about him. . . . I feel like he took a lot of crap over the years,” including being ordered out of a fast-food joint in 100-degree heat while McKeith ate a hamburger.

Acquaintances have told her that “if you . . . were out with male business people it wouldn’t have happened, but I shouldn’t have to expect my clients to protect me from the maitre d’s of this world.”

And even the day she found out that Van de Kamp would speak at today’s seminar was blemished: A courthouse security guard refused to let her in to get to her courtroom and then asked to see some ID on her dog.

Unit Handles Complaints

Under Van de Kamp, six attorneys in a new civil rights enforcement unit handle such complaints, which now number 50 or 60 statewide, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Lewis Verdugo. They range from the handicapped not being provided with full service at self-serve gas station pumps, as required by state law, to new buildings that do not comply with architectural requirements to accommodate the handicapped.

“It’s a wide spectrum,” Verdugo said, and has recently included “little ethnic restaurants set up by someone who just came to the U.S. and is not aware of these laws.”

And while the agreement for today’s seminar “served everybody’s needs quite nicely,” said McKeith, she knows the difficulties will not end with a breakfast meeting.

“I’m just going to get a Doberman next time,” she said with a smile. “Or a big Rottweiler.”