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[ThatHawaiiGuy]

Eatery to close after 105 years

By Michael Fitzgerald and Bruce Spence
Record Staff Writers
Published Wednesday, July 30, 2003

On Lock Sam Restaurant, a 105-year-old Chinese restaurant in downtown Stockton, will close in three weeks after being hit by a federal-court civil lawsuit charging lack of wheelchair accessibility, one of the owners said Tuesday.

Robert Wong, one of six Wong family members who own the restaurant at 333 S. Sutter St., said that because of the threat of huge legal costs in a losing court fight, the family has no choice but to shut the doors Aug. 17, putting 25 employees out of work.

"To correct the problem, I'd say that's fair," said Wong, 62, adding that the family would have been amenable to making needed changes to the restaurant.

But the potential for legal-cost liabilities in a court fight was too much, he said, adding that the family may seek a new owner.

"It seems like quite an injustice to our employees and to the public," said Bob Hong, president of On Lock Sam Inc.

The complaint was filed June 12 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on behalf of Charles Hager, whose legs were amputated and who moves around in a motorized wheelchair.

Wong said he didn't know of the complaint until the lawsuit was served.

Hager is represented in the lawsuit by Paul Rein, an Oakland attorney who represented an Alameda woman who sued film star Clint Eastwood over
handicapped-accessibility allegations concerning Eastwood's Carmel Mission Ranch Inn.

The On Lock Sam suit cited problems that Hager allegedly had in October when parking at the restaurant, entering the restaurant, trying to use the restroom and then use a public pay phone in a bar area down several steps from the main restaurant floor.

The complaint said Hager soiled himself while trying to use the restaurant restroom.

Rein, whose firm specializes in accessibility cases, said he was open to a compromise in the On Lock Sam lawsuit, but after the lawsuit was served, he was never contacted by the Wongs to work out issues.

He said he had no ballpark figure for damages he would seek, because the primary purpose is to obtain access for the disabled.

He said he was sorry that the restaurant will be closing but added he doubts it was about the expense of a lawsuit.

There is an alternative to the restroom-accessibility issue, he said, such as building an accessible unisex restroom elsewhere on the premises if fixing the existing restroom were too expensive.

And putting in a parking place for disabled motorists is the cost of the paint, he said.

The bar-accessibility issue could have been compromised on, Rein said. What can't be compromised on is a large restaurant without restrooms that disabled people can use, he said.

A business that operates without complying with the law takes advantage of other businesses that do comply, he said. ::: Advertisement :::


Hager had a very serious incident there, Rein said, about the most humiliating thing that can happen to a person in a public restaurant.

Stockton lawyer Scott Malm, representing the Wong family, deferred comment to the owners.

According to the complaint:

On Oct. 5, Hager, his sister and her fiance went to the restaurant in his disabled-accessible van to meet a friend for lunch.

There were no properly configured van-accessible parking places, but Hager was able to find a place to park and get out of his van in his wheelchair.

At the restaurant entrance, vestibule configuration made getting through entry-way double doors difficult to manage in a wheelchair, and the doors were too heavy for him to open on his own.

When Hager went to the restroom, he needed the help of his sister's fiance to get through the door because the doorway was too narrow for Hager to get through on his own.

Also, the restroom was too small for Hager to maneuver his wheelchair or to enter the stall.

As a result of the cramped quarters and inability to enter the restroom stall, Hager soiled his clothes and wheelchair.

He was embarrassed and emotionally distraught and wanted to phone the friend who was to meet them to cancel the lunch date. But he was unable to use the pay phone in the restaurant's bar area, which could be entered only down at least three stairs and wasn't accessible by wheelchair.

Hager got someone else to make the phone call canceling the lunch date and "returned to his van in humiliation and frustration."

The suit also charges that the restaurant lacks clear paths of travel through the restaurant and lacks accessible seating areas for someone in a wheelchair.

Hager's suit seeks damages and triple-penalty damages and full payment of all his attorney fees, litigation expenses and court costs.

In an ad running in today's edition of The Record, Wong announces an Aug. 17 closing, pointing out that On Lock Sam has been in business in Stockton since 1898.

The ad outlines the dispute with Hager and says the Wong family recognizes "the difficulties faced by the disabled in our community and fully supports the rights of the disabled to equal access."

The cost of any court-ordered renovation work, plus lost income while construction work was being done, would be "certain financial disaster," the ad said.

Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto said he was surprised to hear about the closing but was aware that the restaurant was no longer the intense, family-run operation of earlier years when Jimmie and Ruth Wong steered On Lock Sam.

A couple of years ago, he said, he had tried to convince Robert Wong to consider relocating the restaurant to the waterfront, where the city is focusing so much of its current redevelopment efforts.

"That would be gangbusters," Podesto said.

But the restaurant business is a tough one, he said, and he didn't sense a family drive to continue with the restaurant in such a manner, considering that younger Wong family members aren't involved with the restaurant.

Podesto said said the closing of On Lock Sam won't hurt the city's downtown redevelopment.

"The things we are doing will create more restaurants," he said.

It's more spiritual, like the 49ers leaving, he said.

"But On Lock is a tremendous name and almost a foundation of Stockton," Podesto said. "I would think somebody would want to take that name and run with it."

Two lunch diners Tuesday were sorry to hear the news.

San Jose residents Jerry and Ruth White are retired but stop to eat at On Lock Sam's at least three or four times a year -- every time they pass through the area.

They've been fans for 10 years, since a San Jose friend -- a restaurant connoisseur of sorts -- pointed them to On Lock Sam with high recommendations.

"We love the food," Ruth White said.

They said they also hated to hear about the lawsuit and the impending closure, even while generally agreeing that accessibility for the handicapped is a good thing.

"I'm opposed to this lawsuit-happy business -- just about of any ilk," Jerry White said. "And I don't think they should have to pay a penalty just because somebody came in here and found it difficult."

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