## Facts

- Luciano Montalvo enrolled his 12-year-old son, Michael, who was HIV-positive and had AIDS, in group classes at a traditional, combat-oriented karate school operated by James P. Radcliffe II.
- The school taught substantial body-contact techniques early and required full-speed sparring and combat-style fighting for advancement.
- The trial evidence showed sparring commonly caused bloody injuries (e.g., bloody noses, cut lips), with blood appearing on hands and uniforms and sometimes entering participants’ mouths, often without knowing whose blood it was.
- The parties agreed that HIV can be transmitted through blood-to-blood contact and that the class environment could create open wounds and blood exposure.
- After learning of Michael’s condition, Radcliffe barred him from group classes, citing risk to other students, but offered private lessons instead.
- The karate school was a place of public accommodation; Michael was disabled under the ADA; and he was excluded because of his HIV status.

## Issues

1. Whether Michael’s participation in the school’s group combat-sparring classes posed a “direct threat” (a significant risk to others) within the meaning of ADA Title III.
2. Whether any reasonable modifications (including universal precautions or changes to sparring practices) could eliminate or sufficiently reduce the risk without fundamentally altering the nature of the program.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit affirmed judgment for the karate school after a bench trial.
- The court held that, on the record, Michael’s participation in group classes would pose a significant risk of HIV transmission because the program regularly involved intense contact and frequent blood exposure.
- The court held that proposed precautions and changes would not reliably eliminate the risk, and modifications that would materially “soften” combat sparring would fundamentally alter the program.
- Because the significant risk could not be eliminated by reasonable modifications, the exclusion from group classes fell within the ADA’s direct-threat exception and did not violate Title III.

## Legal Principles

- Title III of the ADA prohibits disability-based exclusion by places of public accommodation, but does not require admission of an individual who poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others.
- A “direct threat” is a significant risk that cannot be eliminated by reasonable modifications of policies, practices, or procedures.
- The direct-threat determination must be individualized and grounded in reasonable medical judgment using the best available objective evidence.
- A public accommodation need not implement modifications that would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods or services offered.
- If proposed precautions do not sufficiently reduce a significant risk in the specific activity at issue, the ADA permits exclusion from that activity.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the karate school’s exclusion of an HIV-positive child from group combat-style sparring because the evidence supported a finding of significant, blood-exposure-based risk that could not be adequately reduced through reasonable modifications without changing the essential nature of the program.


Montalvo v. Radcliffe, 167 F.3d 873 (4th Cir. 1999)