A restaurant group being sued for discrimination was criticized by a federal magistrate judge for sending out third-party subpoenas to a plaintiff's former employers.

Southern District Magistrate Judge James Cott said attorneys for Morgan's Hotel Group ran afoul of civil procedure rules—including recent changes to prevent “fishing expeditions”—when they tried to get information on the background of Philip Henry.

Henry, who is a gay, black man, worked for two years as a server at the former Isola restaurant in the Mondrian Soho Hotel, where he claimed supervisor Akihide Suzuki subjected him to racial and homophobic abuse.