Oct. 17--A federal judge has thrown out an $8 million settlement between the Adam�s Mark hotel chain and five visitors who said they were discriminated against at Black College Reunion in Daytona Beach. 

The settlement was reached in March with the cooperation of the U.S. Justice Department and Florida Attorney General�s Office, which had taken up the plaintiffs� cause. It was hailed at the time by civil-rights attorneys as a benchmark case, accomplishing for hotels what the 1994 Denny�s discrimination lawsuit did for restaurants. 

But in a ruling issued Friday, Orlando U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court regarding class-action lawsuits prevented her from approving the settlement. 
Conway�s ruling does not affect a separate, non-monetary settlement between the Justice Department and the Adam�s Mark. In that settlement, which the ruling stated is likely to be approved soon, the 21-hotel chain agreed to take steps to ensure there would be no discrimination at the hotels in the future. 

Only the class-action settlement involving the money is affected, said Allison Bethel, with the Attorney General�s Office of Civil Rights. 

Conway�s ruling leaves open the option for the plaintiffs to appeal or pursue the case on an individual basis. The Tampa attorneys for the plaintiffs declined to comment Monday. 

Adam�s Mark officials issued a short statement. 

�We will leave it to others to determine the broader implications of the decision,� said Sharon Harvey Davis, the St. Louis-based company�s vice president for corporate affairs. �We are looking forward to moving ahead and putting all of these lawsuits behind us.� 

The Adam�s Mark admitted no wrongdoing when it agreed in March to the settlements, which came after at least five organizations canceled conventions or banquets at Adam�s Mark properties in protest against the alleged discrimination. 
The discrimination charges arose after the 1998 Black College Reunion, an annual street party that draws as many as 100,000 blacks, most of them young, to Daytona Beach�s oceanfront tourist strip. 

The Adam�s Mark was accused of charging blacks higher room rates than whites and subjecting black guests to stricter security measures. Guests also said they were not allowed to use telephones, mini-bars or movies in their rooms without first paying a cash deposit. They said couches, lamps and chairs were removed from the lobby the day BCR guests were to arrive. 

Hotel officials denied that they treated black guests any differently than whites during the three-day event known for its gridlocked streets and rowdy party scene. An independent audit of Adam�s Mark hotels conducted as part of the settlement found no evidence of an intent to discriminate. 

Conway�s ruling hinged on two recent cases concerning class-action lawsuits decided at higher courts. The key case was a ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that shows the �virtual impossibility� of having a class-action civil-rights case when the plaintiffs seek punitive damages but are not employees, the ruling stated. 

© 2000 Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.