Posted on 10/14/2001 3:35:29 AM PDT by StoneColdGOP
'Toy-Yoda' case to go forward
DAVID ANGIER
The News Herald
A judge on Friday cited fairness as a reason to keep the "toy-Yoda" case alive when he ruled against a motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on an employee agreement.
Jodee Berry has sued the Panama City Beach Hooters Restaurant where she worked until May. The suit for unspecified damages claims breech of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.
Berry said manager Jared Blair told the waitresses that the company would reward the one who sold the most beer during April with a "new Toyota automobile." She said at the end of April, Blair told her she'd won.
When Berry was led blindfolded to the parking lot to claim her prize, she got a new "toy-Yoda" Star Wars doll instead of the promised car, the suit contends.
On Monday, Circuit Judge Glenn Hess heard a motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on an employee handbook Berry signed when hired. The handbook says employees and the company must try to settle disputes through mediation or arbitration before going to lawsuits.
Hooters attorney Casey Rodgers argued that the suit should be taken out of the courts and sent to arbitration, or dismissed outright.
But Hess sided with Berry's lawyer, Stephen West, who argued that the agreement wasn't a contract, wasn't binding and shouldn't be enforced.
West pointed out that the handbook itself states that it isn't a contract and is "subject to change by (Hooters) without notices."
"Hooters has retained for itself the right not to be bound by the terms of its own arbitration agreement," West told the judge. "They can't have a contract when it favors them and not have a contract when it doesn't favor them."
Hess cited procedural and fairness issues in coming to his decision. He said most contracts are agreements between equals with the same power to "dicker" in their best interests.
Hooters' handbook, on the other hand, is a "take or leave it" agreement in which an employee's refusal to sign would probably lead to an employment offer being withdrawn. Berry, Hess wrote, was at an unfair disadvantage.
Hess wrote that Hooters now wants Berry held to an agreement that was never intended to bind the company.
"The long-standing rule of law is that unconscionable contracts will not be given effect," Hess wrote. "The defendant's motion, therefore, is denied."
This is your chance to threaten to boycott hOOters!
If you build it, they will come.
It's a female mammary gland and located on either side of the midline of the chest.
In other words, if you have little more than a room-temp IQ, if you appreciate a good joke on someone who doesn't deserve it, if you think that the female breasts are "where the action is," and if your idea of "good clean fun" is humiliating any nearby female, then anything you do is protected by law.
In my opinion, this manager had in mind whom he wanted to win the competition. Had "she" won, she would have gotten the car. It was a girl already sharing her "favours." However, the game went wrong and the girl who WASN'T putting out actually won. The girl who thought she'd sewn up the new car was pissed and cut the manager off. So the manager, acting out of spite (and trying to get Ms. Tricks back in the folds of the bed) tries this Toy Yoda routine.
In other words, the manager was trying to use the company to pay off the gal he'd been boffing. He was sure she'd win. But she didn't. The girl he COULDN'T GET won. He tried to stiff her and she sued. The manager is the prick, and now the company is stuck trying to defend him.
This manager will have a very short shelf-life.
Michael
With the winner on the line, the called up the Stones. "Hello, is this Mr. & Mrs. Stone?" "This is Dr. & Mrs Stone's residence..."
The winner, a girl, knew almost before the second syllable of "mister" got out that she was, well...
First, head down to the hardware store for some silicone............hehe heh!
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