What are my rights if I’m being prohibited from entering a business due to a medical condition?
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What are my rights if I’m being prohibited from entering a business due to a medical condition?
About 2 weeks ago I was in my local pub. I had a couple of drinks but wasn’t drunk at all, lthough I started to feel very bad. When I left the place I collapsed right out in front. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital. I had low blood pressure since my thyroid wasn’t right. Then 1 week after when I walked in to the pub, they told me that I couldn’t be served because of what happened; they asked me to leave. Do they have rights to do that? I felt really discriminated against. I didn’t do anything wrong, wasn’t drunk, didn’t argue with anyone and because I live locally they knew my face and I wasn’t always very friendly to everyone. What can I do about this situation?
Asked on September 30, 2012 under Personal Injury, Georgia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
A business, even a place of public gathering, has wide discretion to exclude people it reasonably believes pose a threat or risk of liability, and someone who collapses outside a pub and needs an ambulence could seem to pose such risk. It is possible that if you took legal action against the pub and could show that the collapse was a function of a medical condition or disability, that you could force them to accomodate you (since a place of public accomodation may not discrimminate on the basis of disability), but doing so could be expensive and it's not certain you'd win, especially if either you had failed to eat right or take proper medication to keep the condition under control, or if drinking could cause problems for someone with this condition--i.e. if there was anything at all you did which contributed to the collapse.
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