Counsel for Defendants asked the Court to compel removal of Plaintiffs’ website (www.TGIFridayslawsuit.com) alleging the website contained false and misleading information and infringed on T.G.I. Friday’s trademark. Plaintiffs argued that the website was proper attorney advertising and would not infringe on Friday’s trademarks because the public would not be confused regarding who controlled the website. The website contains disclaimers specifically stating that, “This website is not affiliated or endorsed by TGI Fridays or tgifridays.com. This website provides information regarding a ...
Continue Reading →17 JAN
An investigation seeks to uncover whether Barnes and Noble properly classified their Assistant Managers as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Laws. By classifying their Assistant Managers as exempt, Barnes and Noble paid them a set salary regardless of the amount of hours they worked. However, it is alleged that Barnes and Noble misclassified their Assistant Managers as exempt since Assistant Managers performed the same work as the hourly employees. ...
Continue Reading →19 DEC
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F&S is pleased to announce that Judge Hellerstein has signed off on a stipulation allowing court-authorized notice to be sent to over 600 current and former employees of celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurants: Daniel, DBGB, Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud. If a person joins the case, they will be able to seek remedies for unpaid minimum wage, overtime, tips and spread of hours.
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6 DEC
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We are pleased to report that Judge McMahon has granted our motion for Rule 23 Class Certification for all tipped and kitchen workers who have worked at Public House, Butterfield 8, Tammany Hall and Wicker Park in the past six years. We will be sending notices shortly advising employees of their ability to participate and recover if a settlement is reached. Restaurant workers should be aware that they are able to bring claims for ...
Continue Reading →26 NOV
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On November 20, 2012, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class action lawsuit against The Riese Organization, Inc., who owns and/or operates 10 T.G.I. Friday’s in Manhattan. T.G.I. Friday’s is a popular restaurant brand with more than 500 locations worldwide. This lawsuit alleges that T.G.I. Friday’s failed to pay proper minimum wages, overtime pay, spread-of-hours pay, and call in pay to servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks and other tipped workers as required under the federal ...
Continue Reading →16 NOV
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Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action against Chipotle Mexican Grill, a “fast casual” restaurant chain with over 1300 locations nationwide. The lawsuit alleges that Chipotle failed to pay their Apprentices and Assistant Managers proper overtime compensation by misclassifying them as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Laws. We allege that Salaried Apprentices performed the same work as hourly employees, primarily working ...
Continue Reading →16 NOV
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On November 15, 2012, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action lawsuit against Legends Hospitality, LLC and New York Yankees Partnership (collectively, “Yankees”). The lawsuit alleges that Yankees led their customers to believe that the mandatory service charge during private catering events was a gratuity that would be distributed to the Banquet Servers. However, the Yankees retained a portion of this gratuity/service charge. Moreover, the Yankees failed to pay its Banquet Servers ...
Continue Reading →10 AUG
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On August 10, 2012, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action lawsuit against The Dinex Group and Daniel Boulud, the world-renowned celebrity chef. The lawsuit alleges that Boloud’s restaurants, including Bar Boloud fail to pay proper minimum wage, overtime and spread of hours to tipped restaurant workers. Many of these violations stem from non-tip eligible employees participating in the tip pool, including polishers, expediters and the Maitre’ D. Under New York law, ...
Continue Reading →25 JUL
In the recent decision of Wang v. Hearst Corporation, 2012 WL 2864524, the Court denied the defendant-employer’s motion to strike the class and collective action allegations made by the plaintiff-employees and granted the plaintiff’s cross-motion for conditional certification and court-authorized notice to potential class members pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §216(b).
Plaintiff’s proposed class consisted of interns who worked at 19 magazines, owned and operated by defendant, performing tasks necessary to the employer’s operations such as ...
Continue Reading →24 JUL
In a recent decision, Morano v. Intercontinental Capital Group, 2012 WL 2952893, the Court dismissed the employees’ nationwide collective action against their employer because all the plaintiffs were not “similarly situated.” The Court recommended that the employees propose workable classes and resubmit their collective action or that each individual employee bring their own lawsuit.
Plaintiffs in the case were loan officers at Intercontinental Capital Group, Inc. (defendants). The employees brought their claims as a nationwide collective action claiming that their Intercontinental ...
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