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Paralyzed man sues travel company over Cancun vacation

Salem News - 11/12/2020

Nov. 12--PEABODY -- Thomas Muxie is a paraplegic who has been using a wheelchair since suffering a spinal cord injury in 1986. So when the Peabody resident booked a vacation to a Cancun beachfront resort in 2017, he sought assurances from the travel company that his accommodations would be handicapped-accessible.

Muxie said a company sales representative repeatedly told him that would be the case. But according to a lawsuit filed in Peabody District Court, when Muxie arrived at the resort in Mexico, he discovered that it did not have a toilet that he could access in his wheelchair.

The lawsuit says Muxie spent two distressing nights at the resort without being able to use the toilet or shower before cutting his vacation short and returning home. He is now suing the travel company to get his money back and, his lawsuit says, to prevent the same thing from happening to somebody else. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20 at Peabody District Court.

According to the lawsuit, Muxie bought a six-day, all-inclusive vacation package for him and a friend to the Grand Oasis Cancun resort through a company called CheapCaribbean, the same company they had used for a Caribbean vacation in 2013.

The resort pictured on the company's website was described as "HP," for handicapped accessible, according to the lawsuit. Muxie also said he received repeated assurances from a CheapCaribbean sales agent over the telephone that the resort was wheelchair-accessible and would have a roll-in shower.

But when Muxie arrived at the resort, he discovered "to his dismay" that it did not have a toilet that he could access, according to the lawsuit. An agent at the hotel told him he would be transferred to another Cancun resort that was wheelchair-accessible. But when the agent said the next day that he could not find one and suggested that Muxie look for one himself, Muxie flew home the following day.

"Without essential toilet facilities, nourishment, or shower access, Mr. Muxie endured increasing physical distress, and acute emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment," the lawsuit says.

Muxie requested a refund and compensation for physical and emotional injuries, but CheapCaribbean would only refund a portion of the $1,450 cost of the trip, according to the lawsuit.

The company eventually offered a full refund, but on the condition that Muxie sign a nondisclosure agreement and agree not to sue. He refused that offer and filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and filed a lawsuit on Dec. 31, 2019.

Muxie is demanding a full refund, plus compensation for his "physical pain and suffering, public humiliation, embarrassment and emotional distress, and attorneys' fees," for a total of $41,534. He is also seeking a written apology and action by the company to assure that it will never again sell a travel package "on the basis of false assurances of handicapped-accessibility."

CheapCaribbean offered $7,535 with no apology, and only if he agreed not to sue, the lawsuit says. Muxie rejected has that offer.

Attorneys for CheapCaribbean, now called ALG Vacations Corp., have filed a motion to dismiss the case. The company says that Massachusetts courts lack jurisdiction and that the case can only be heard in Pennsylvania, where the company is based.

Those terms were laid out in the Terms and Conditions section of its website, the company says. And it says Muxie agreed to those terms and conditions over the telephone when he booked his trip.

Muxie's lawsuit, however, says those terms were "buried" at the bottom of the company's website and that he never saw them. The suit says the case will test the limits to which internet company's "browsewrap" agreements can be enforced against consumers.

An attorney for ALG Vacations did not return a message seeking comment.

Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.

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