When your wedding reception gets a bad reception, a successful lawsuit may be the icing on the cake.  This case got started when an African-American couple decided to have their wedding reception at a hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  They filled out an official sales and catering walk-in inquiry form, which had to be approved by the wedding specialist.  Although they made repeated telephone calls, visited twice more, filled out a second form and even got a tour of the facilities, they never heard back from the wedding specialist.  They finally gave up and booked another hotel.  They then complained to the Fair Housing Agency, which sent out four testers, three of whom were African-American, also unable to rent the facility.  The Sixth Circuit ordered that the plaintiffs were entitled to see all of the hotel wedding contracts, and that the hotel’s behavior gave rise to an inference of discrimination sufficient for a jury trial.  So it’s a matter of black and white and when it comes to wedding receptions, hotels should probably say I do instead of we won’t.

THIS IS NEIL CHAYET LOOKING AT THE LAW™

Skeck v. Graham Hotel Systems, Inc., Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 08-2024, May 21, 2009, Merritt, J., U.S. Law Week, Vol. 77, No. 46, Pg. 1728, 6-2-09

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