A ‘Ladies’ Night’ lawsuit sent a family-owned restaurant out of business. It’s more common than you’d think

The owner of the California restaurant Lima said it hasn’t been able to bounce back after settling a lawsuit over a promotion that discounted drinks for women.

Historically, “Ladies’ Nights” have been great for business. Discounted drinks or meals tend to draw a large crowd of women, which in turn tends to draw more men – which then leads to packed bars and increased sales for the business. But a family-run restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area is shutting down this week because it can’t afford to operate after it settled a “Ladies’ Night” discrimination lawsuit, CNN affiliate KGO reported last week. John Marquez, the chef and owner of Lima Restaurant in Concord, told the outlet that it hasn’t been able to bounce back after settling a lawsuit over a promotion that discounted drinks for women. It’s not the first small business to be sued over a Ladies’ Night promotion due to technicalities in discrimination laws in certain states. The Unruh Civil Rights Act, a California law that dates back to 1959, says businesses can’t discriminate against religion, race and gender. A slew of lawsuits have since followed, and that has meant a sharp drop in the promotion. “A lot of these small mom-and-pop-type bars honestly might not know about this law,” said Rebecca Nieman, professor of business law and ethics at the University of San Diego. “Which is why you see these lawsuits still happening with these extremely small proprietors.” Most gender discrimination lawsuits against small businesses get settled outside of court, Nieman said. Restaurants and bars with their razor-thin margins simply cannot financially handle a lawsuit from beginning to end and fight it in court.