The Michigan Court of Appeals recent ruled in Cormier v PF-Fitness Midland, LLC. Docket No. 331286 (July 2018), that a claim against Planet Fitness for violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act (MCPA) was allowed to proceed to trial, where Planet Fitness failed to disclose its policy allowing assigned men to use the women’s locker room. Planet Fitness represented that the plaintiff’s membership included access to private women’s locker rooms. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the MCPA claim and remanded the case back to the trial court for further proceedings.
The plaintiff entered into a membership agreement with the defendants’ Planet Fitness gym facility in Midland, Michigan. One month later, while in the women’s locker room, she encountered a transgender individual. After the plaintiff reported that there was a man in the women’s locker room, the plaintiff was advised that it was the defendant’s policy that people have access to the facility that corresponds to the sex with which an individual self-identifies. The plaintiff returned to the gym several times in the ensuing days and warned other women about the policy and to be careful when using the women’s facilities. The defendants terminated the plaintiff’s membership shortly after.
The plaintiff filed a lawsuit alleging that defendants represented that there were separate locker rooms, shower, and restroom facilities for men and women. Plaintiff alleged that defendants’ unwritten policy allowing assigned men who self-identify as women to use the women’s facilities violated the MCPA. The Court of Appeals concluded that the plaintiff sufficiently set forth claims of violation of the MCPA and reversed and remanded these claims to the trial court for further proceedings.
This article was written by Ryan Hansen, Law Clerk
