Exclusive | Avid Chinese chicken food enthusiast demands cash, ADA access to dozens of NYC restaurants in multiple lawsuits

They’re in a “fowl” mood.Going clucking mad, a paraplegic man confined to a wheelchair and his attorney have made a business of suing various Queens businesses for alleged failures to provide handicap access to their establishments.And now, legal efforts aim for the paralyzed local to access a popular order of Chinese chicken.Lesaldo Shalto, who appears to live in a chronic care facility on Roosevelt Island, has filed three dozen New York City federal lawsuits primarily against restaurants in Astoria and Long Island City since 2012.In all the cases, filed in New York federal court in the Eastern District, Shalto cites violations of the American With Disabilities Act, the New York City Human Rights Law and the New York State Human Rights Law, according to the filings reviewed by The Post. The ADA and local mandates make it clear that small businesses must give disabled New Yorkers the exact same access to goods and services as able-bodied customers.

For years in New York State, these cases have been on the rise — and have even made the transition to website accessibility — as human rights laws allow plaintiffs to reap damages by adding city- and state-level claims in ADA suits.Most recently, Shalto — described as an “avid Chinese chicken food enthusiast” in records — sued Astoria’s New Ho Wah Chinese Restaurant at 42-01-03 Broadway and the building’s owner for keeping him away from the centrally located hotspot “best known for its signature egg rolls and General Tso’s chicken (which Plaintiff loves chicken),” the suit says. Claiming the joint violates the ADA and the city’s and state’s Human Rights Law, the poultry-loving plaintiff is heading to court to compel the eatery to make the space accessible to him and other disabled people — and pay an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.The building’s owner, Fengyet Property, which could not be reached for comment, acquired the building in 2016 for $1.5 million, property record...