Joint venture agrees to pay $6M to San Francisco 49ers in ADA case

The joint venture that built Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, has agreed to pay the NFL team a $6 million settlement in connection with an Americans with Disabilities Act class-action lawsuit.

The 49ers had sued Turner/Devcon, the joint venture of New York-based Turner Construction Co. and Milpitas, California-based Devcon Construction Inc. that had built the stadium.

The settlement in Forty-Niners Football Co. et. al. v. Turner/Devcon, a Joint Venture, stems from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2016 by Abdul Nevarez against the team and the city of Santa Clara, California, where Levi’s Stadium is located, and related corporate entities, alleging the stadium did not have sufficient public accommodations such as accessible seating, restrooms and signage in violation of the federal ADA and state law.

In a ruling in March in Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. Turner/Devcon et. al., the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco held that units of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Chubb Ltd. and Markel Corp. were not liable to defend the joint venture.

The settlement agreement filed on Thursday is scheduled for a hearing for its approval in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Feb. 3.

The settlement agreement filed by an attorney for the joint venture argues the settlement is “fair and reasonable.” 

According to court papers in the case, the San Jose court last year approved a class-action settlement in Abdul Nevarez et. al. v. Forty Niners Football Company, LLC against the 49ers and Santa Clara for $24 million, plus $12.3 million in attorneys fees and costs.

Attorneys in the case did not respond to a request for comment.