Cracker Barrel settles disabled-spot suit

PITTSBURGH — Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has settled a class-action lawsuit brought by a basketball star who claimed handicapped parking spaces at some restaurants are too steep or otherwise violate federal law.

Sarah Heinzl of Pittsburgh plays on the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball National Team and sued in 2014. She claimed parking spaces at the Robinson Township restaurant were so sloped her wheelchair would roll away before she could get into it, so she’d bring along her mother to help whenever she wanted to eat there.

Officials with the Lebanon, Tenn.-based chain didn’t immediately comment on the settlement. It received preliminary approval Monday by a federal magistrate judge in Pittsburgh who set a hearing Aug. 10 to formally approve it.

Under the settlement, Cracker Barrel has 2½ years to fix slope and other handicapped parking problems at 107 restaurants in seven states and up to seven years to fix any problems revealed by court-ordered architectural surveys of its 536 other restaurants. Cracker Barrel also has agreed to pay Heinzl $7,500 and her law firm $830,000 for its work on the lawsuit and future monitoring of Cracker Barrel’s compliance with the settlement, the law firm said.