On August 6, 2013, the United States District Court ruled against Astoria Brewhouse (“Defendant”) in their motion to dismiss several claims filed by former employee/bartender Nicholas Ritz (“Ritz”) alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL). The Defendant’s motion to dismiss was regarding a previous offer made to Ritz which it believed made the Plaintiff’s claims moot. More specifically, after Ritz received ...
Continue Reading →Scanned First Amended Complaint 10-4-13
On July 25, 2013, Carlos Flores, Hermelindo Tendilla, Rafael Aldape and Francisco Delarosa-Atlatenco (“Plaintiffs”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court (S.D.N.Y.) on behalf of themselves and similarly situated “tipped workers” that worked at Harry’s Steak House (“Harry’s”) alleging that Harry’s unlawfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the New York Labor Law (NYLL). The Plaintiffs are seeking to ...
Continue Reading →On June 12, 2013, the Alycia Carrillo (“Plaintiff”) filed a complaint in U.S. Federal Court on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated that worked at The Ainsworth and Ainsworth Park (collectively, the “Ainsworth Bars”), as class representative, alleging that Paige Hospitality Group (“Defendant”) unlawfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL). The plaintiff is seeking to recover unpaid minimum wages, overtime compensation, spread of hours pay, misappropriated gratuities, misappropriated service charges, unlawful ...
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S.D.N.Y. Grants Conditional Certification and Court-Authorized Notice to Tipped Employees against Ruby Tuesday Restaurants
On June 11, 2013, the U.S. Federal Court (S.D.N.Y.) granted conditional certification and court-authorized notice to potential class members in Guttentag v. Ruby Tuesday, ...
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On April 30, 2013, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action lawsuit against the owners and operators of Restaurant Riki, Box Snack Riki, and Riki Yakiniku Izakaya (collectively referred to as the “Riki Restaurants”), for failing to pay minimum wages, overtime wages, spread of hours pay, and for misappropriating customer tips intended for their servers. According to the lawsuit, the Riki Restaurants have violated numerous provisions of the ...
Continue Reading →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 ...
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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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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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