Jury: Denny's must pay $600K to family for bias

Nation's Restaurant News,  Sept 24, 2007  

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EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL. -- A federal jury has ordered Denny's Corp. to pay $600,000 to 15 members of a black family who claimed their white server purposely ignored them and uttered racial slurs, the Associated Press reported.

Each member of plaintiff Sandra Green's family is to be given $5,000 in compensatory damages and $35,000 in punitive damages in connection with a November 2003 meal at a Denny's in the St. Louis suburb of Fairview Heights. The server, who later was fired, allegedly waited on white patrons and disregarded the family, leaving members to obtain their own drinks, utensils and napkins.

An attorney for Spartanburg, S.C.-based Denny's reportedly conceded to jurors that the family had received bad service, but insisted they were not harmed. Denny's had yet to decide whether to appeal, the lawyer was quoted as saying.

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