Tetiana Grechishnikova, who was denied entrance into a Donetsk nightclub because she is wheelchair bound was subsequently awarded Hr 2,000 in moral damages in May by a Donetsk civil court, but plans to file a cassation appeal and seek further compensation.
The civil
court ruled she was discriminated for her physical disability and that her consumer rights were violated, citing, among other laws, article 24 of of Ukraine’s Constitution related to
discrimination.
The 27-year-old
woman, who has been using a wheelchair for the past 12 years because of
injuries incurred during a car crash, originally sued the club for Hr 50,000. Despite her disability she says she lives an active lifestyle, participating in dancing competitions and chasing around around her 8-year-old son.
According
to Grechishnikova, security guards of Donetsk’s Litza nightclub refused to let her in on the night of Jan. 26
because she “did not pass face control.”
“(Security)
said that the nightclub is not for handicapped persons and that I will disturb
other visitors,” Grechishnikova told the Kyiv Post, reiterating what she’d told
the court.
The woman
and her two friends had gone to the club to celebrate Grechishnikova’s name day,
a popular tradition of celebrating the day of the year
associated with one’s given name.
In late March
Grechishnikova filed a lawsuit in the Kalininskiy District Court of Donetsk, demanding
Hr 50,000 from the nightclub for moral compensation. During a hearing in May the
court ordered the nightclub to pay Grechishnikova the much lesser sum of Hr 2,000.
Unsatisfied, she took the case to the Donetsk Court of Appeals. On July 2 that
court upheld the previous award of Hr 2,000.
“It’s not
compensation, (but) rather a mockery,” Grechishnikova says. “Two thousand
hryvnyas is not a big sum of money for such a luxury nightclub and it
definitely won’t force them to learn from their mistake.”
Both Grechishnikova
and her lawyer, Tetiana Ivanova, say they will continue to seek further
compensation and will submit a cassation appeal to Ukraine’s High Court.
According
to Grechishnikova, club employees were very rude to her and her friends when
they tried to enter the club. She
offered to write and sign a disclaimer upon entering the club acknowledging
that the club bears no responsibility for her health and life, but its chief of
security director refused the offer.
When
Grechishnikova’s friends tried to film the conversation with hand-held devices,
guards threatened to break them and kick them out.
“They
kicked out two young men who tried to defend us,” says Grechishnikova’s boyfriend
Dmytro Gorobets, who was with her that night. “My girlfriend is a very active
person, we go to many places, sometimes there are problems of that kind, but we
always manage to find (a solution). The staff has never been this rude (to us)
before,” Gorobets says.
At the
court hearing, a nightclub representative said that Grechishnikova wasn’t allowed
inside because the club was overcrowded. But Grechishnikova, said this couldn’t
be the true reason.
“I watched
many people (enter the club) while we were arguing,” she explained.
According
to the May 29 court ruling, in its testimony the defense stated that the club’s
interior had no ramps installed, many levels and staircases and that security
couldn’t guarantee the safety of people who live with physical disabilities.
The defense also denied treating her and her friends discourteously or using
foul language.
The club had
earlier offered her Hr 5,000 to settle out of court, but she rejected it, she
said. The club’s lawyer, Oksana Vihristiuk, refused to comment on the situation
before the cassation appeal is considered, but said that “the club’s position (on
this case) is well known.”
Grechishnikova’s
lawyer, Ivanova, said that in court she cited Ukraine’s Consumers Rights
Protection Law, as well as article No. 24 of Ukraine’s Constitution, wherein everyone
is granted equal rights.
Both
Ivanova and Grechishnikova believe there is a chance the full amount of Hr
50,000 could be awarded during cassation.
“What I
can’t believe is the sum of money they were going to pay me,” Grechishnikova
said. “I’ve heard about a similar case abroad, and the woman won $50,000. I
understand that Ukraine is not yet on that cultural level, but saying that
disabled people can’t be normal members of society is too much,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna
Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at
@Iskrynka.
