Lieber v. Macy’s West, Inc.

Macy’s West, Inc. (Macy’s) (defendant) owned a number of department stores, including a store at Union Square in San Francisco. The departments in this store had merchandise that was placed on display racks. In order to allow customers to access the merchandise, the display racks were positioned with a certain amount of clear space between each rack. But Ellen Lieber (plaintiff) brought suit against Macy’s, contending that the store did not provide enough clear space between the merchandise display racks for individuals with mobility disabilities. Lieber argued that these individuals experienced difficulty in accessing the merchandise at the store, such that Macy’s violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). At the trial, Rebecca Canfield, Macy’s director of stores, testified that providing more clear space between the merchandise display racks would result in a significant loss of selling space in the store. Canfield’s testimony was based on mental guesstimates that Canfield made during a brief visit to the store, and there were no empirical studies supporting her testimony. However, Kevin Ellis, Macy’s vice president of floor planning, testified that the store generally used display racks that held small amounts of merchandise. Ellis acknowledged that the store could instead use display racks capable of holding more merchandise, thereby increasing clear space between the racks without resulting in a significant loss of selling space. The district court took the matter under advisement.