Appeals court rules against Colonial Williamsburg tavern
Eatery wouldn’t let child with allergies eat homemade lunch
Should a child with a severe gluten allergy be allowed to bring a homemade meal into a Colonial Williamsburg restaurant on a school field trip?
A federal appeals court Friday ruled against the tavern that refused to let the child eat his own food at its site.
But one judge disagreed, saying the decision would force restaurants throughout Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas to “give up control over their most valuable asset: the food they serve.”
“This is a terrible rule,” wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson.
The case was brought by an 11-year-old boy from Maryland who tried to bring his glutenfree chicken sandwich into Shields Tavern during his school trip in May 2017. He and about 60 classmates planned to have dinner at the tavern, which offers a traditional 18th-century experience with actors and musicians.
But the restaurant, owned and operated by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, refused the boy's request and offered instead to prepare a gluten-free meal, according to the opinion.
The boy turned it down because he “didn't trust the restaurant to safely prepare” his food, court filings stated. He ate outside, humiliated, he said, and apart from his classmates.
The boy, identified in court papers by his initials J.D., suffers severe health problems when he ingests gluten, including significant constipation, abdominal pain and temporary loss of consciousness, that he said in court filings amounts to a disability.
He alleged that Colonial Williamsburg discriminated against him by keeping him out of the restaurant and refusing to change its policy against outside food in violation of federal and state laws protecting people with disabilities.
A District Court judge sided with the restaurant and Colonial Williamsburg in finding that the boy had not met the legal standard for showing he was discriminated against because of his disability. The family appealed the lower court decision.
The decision Friday sends the case back to the District Court in Virginia for a jury trial.