State fines Fung Wah for discrimination

Dorchester resident Mary Sten-Clanton had never been to a Broadway show before. So, one cold winter day in 2004, she and her husband, Albert, eagerly planned every detail of their weekend getaway. After boarding a Fung Wah bus for a quick and inexpensive ride to New York and having a fancy dinner in Manhattan with friends, they planned to catch the popular musical "Wicked."

But she and her husband almost did not make it out of downtown Boston, because the bus driver refused to allow Albert's dog on board. The animal, they were told, violated the company's no-pet policy.

The Sten-Clantons protested, saying they were blind and Albert Sten-Clanton needed his guide dog. They were left on a Chinatown street in 15-degree weather until the police showed up and drove the distraught couple to South Station to take Amtrak.

Yesterday, in the latest black eye for a bus company that has been plagued with highly publicized mishaps, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that Fung Wah has been ordered by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to pay the couple $60,000 in damages for emotional distress and a $10,000 civil penalty to the state for discriminating against the blind.

In addition, the commission ordered Fung Wah to implement anti discrimination and service animal policies, to designate a new disability-access coordinator, and to train its workforce about anti discrimination laws within 60 days, according to Coakley's office.

"A company in Massachusetts clearly did not know what the law is in Massachusetts," Coakley said in a telephone interview.

"The law is the law. For this company, it will not happen again, and I hope other companies take note of it," she said.

The Sten-Clantons said yesterday that they are thrilled with their victory.

"We deal with other misconceptions about blindness, but refusal to transport us?" Mary Sten-Clanton said in a telephone interview. "We just hope Fung Wah is a lot better."

A person answering the phone at Fung Wah's New York headquarters yesterday said: "I don't know why people are talking about this now. It is an old, old story. We have all new people here, and we don't know what you are talking about."

The eight-year-old discount bus line offers $15 one-way trips between Boston and New York. It has been under state and federal scrutiny since a string of maintenance and operation problems, starting in August 2005 when a bus caught fire on its way to New York. Federal officials concluded the fire was caused by faulty wiring.

Earlier this year, a driver for the company was cited by State Police for speeding, negligent operation of a vehicle, keeping false records, and an equipment violation after a New York-bound bus crashed near the Allston-Brighton tolls. There were no injuries.

In November, the company was fined $31,000 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after 34 passengers were injured in a September rollover crash in Auburn. Police cited the driver for speeding.

In May 2006, the same federal agency fined the company $12,950 for speeding, failure to keep driver records, and using a bus that had failed inspection.

It was in January 2004 when the Sten-Clantons decided to take their trip.

"I had wanted to see a Broadway show all of my life, and this is the first time we actually did it," said Mary Sten-Clanton, 47. "Since we do have to use public transportation. we figured we might as well make a weekend out of it."

But she and her husband were stunned when the bus driver denied them tickets to board. At one point, Sten-Clanton told his wife, who uses a cane, to buy her ticket while he dealt with the bus company, but the driver refused to sell her a ticket .

"He said to her, 'Well, you don't have a dog, so who is going to guide you,' " recalled Albert Sten-Clanton, 52. "I couldn't believe it. They just wouldn't relent. We called the police, and then they called the police, too," he said.

A sales clerk also consulted Fung Wah's president, Pei Lin Liang , who instructed the clerk not to sell tickets to the couple because of their no-pet policy, said Coakley's office.

The officers who responded to the call told the sales clerk that the couple had a right to board the bus with their dog, but the clerk still refused to sell the tickets.

The couple was awarded damages for "their inconvenience, the humiliation," Coakley said. "In fact, they were left in 15-degree weather. That couldn't have been pleasant for them."

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com.