NC Restaurant Settles Suit with HIV-Positive Cook

A former cook at a locally owned restaurant in Wrightsville Beach was fired when the owners learned he was HIV-positive, and the restaurant was forced to settle with the cook in order to avoid a costly court battle.

Aron Pelela, 31, worked as a prep chef at The Causeway Café in Wrightsville Beach. But when the restaurant’s owners learned that Pelela was HIV-positive, they were worried about their liability and the potential risk to their customers. A local health ordinance prohibits someone with a contagious disease from working in the food industry, and HIV is a contagious disease, so the restaurant’s owners contacted the local health department for advice.

The health department would not give them clearance to employ Pelela, but they also refused to give them a statement saying it was not a violation to employ him. The restaurant’s owners felt they had no choice but to let him go, so Pelela was fired in October 2005. Attorney Joyce L. Davis of Raleigh, NC, then enlisted the help of Lambda Legal to sue the restaurant under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Lambda Legal is a national legal organization that sues businesses for perceived civil rights infringements, on behalf of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and people who are HIV-positive.