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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2001
The Florida Attorney General's Office will have to take its lawsuit against the Adam's Mark hotel chain to state court, a federal judge ruled.
Several of the issues raised by the state should be decided by a state judge, not a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway in Orlando ruled Monday.
The state intervened in a lawsuit originally filed by five private plaintiffs against the chain's parent company, HBE Corp., in 1999. The black vacationers said they were singled out as security risks during Black College Reunion in Daytona Beach and made to wear orange wristbands to get into the hotel, while white guests were not.
Conway will hear the private plaintiffs' case and scheduled the trial for January.
Last year, Conway rejected a proposed settlement that would have given $8-million to the former guests of HBE's Daytona Beach hotel and four historically black colleges. HBE officials said they tried subsequently to reach an agreement with the plaintiffs but were unsuccessful.
The rejection did not affect a separate settlement HBE reached with the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of that agreement, the chain agreed to take steps to prevent discrimination at the hotels.