7 of the strangest lawsuits making headlines
The following lawsuits exemplify the lighter, and sometimes bizarre, side of the legal world.
May 30, 2012 at 08:19 AM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
Boorish Bosses
The world's worst boss award goes to the management of the Sutton Place Restaurant and Bar in New York City, who allegedly enforced a “no fatties” policy for female staff members. Kristen McRedmond and Alexandria Lipton sued the sports bar for $15 million in 2006, claiming that managers not only subjected them to sexual comments and unwanted touching but that they also weighed waitresses and posted the results online. The two women say they were fired after complaining about restaurant policies.
The bar's owner countered, saying the women were fired for tardiness and rule breaking, and presented disciplinary forms as evidence. But a judge ruled last week that the suit can go before a jury, noting that the disciplinary forms had not been shown to the women before their firings.
Religious Row
A former Time Warner Cable employee has hit the company with a $2 million discrimination lawsuit, claiming that he was fired because of his religious beliefs. Keith Reid, who worked in the company's New York City maintenance department, says that he filed several complaints with human resources after he repeatedly saw co-workers watching pornography.
After making the last complaint, Reid was suspended and ultimately fired. He says that pornography offends his Christian beliefs and that he was fired “in retaliation [for] the multiple complaints of religious discriminations and harassment.”
Texas Tussle
In the future, patented steak may lead to some courtroom tussles. But two Texas steakhouses are currently locked in a legal battle, not over their signature dish, but over a lobster baked potato. The Longhorn Steakhouse Restaurant and Longhorn Steak & Ale opened in Corpus Christi in 1989. The trouble began a few years ago when LongHorn Steakhouse, a Florida-based chain run by Darden restaurants, began running ads in Corpus Christi, even though the company has no restaurants in the area.
According to a federal complaint filed by the two original restaurants, confused customers regularly come to them seeking to redeem coupons for the Florida chain. Diners also ask for the “lobster baked potato”—featured in several LongHorn ads—and are “aggravated” to discover that the item is not available. The plaintiffs are seeking to stop Darden and LongHorn from using their name or branding in the Corpus Christi area.
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