Posted on 05/18/2005 3:00:25 PM PDT by Nascardude
DENVER (AP) - Ross Hopkins still likes to drink Bud, even though he says a brief tryst with a Coors beer cost him his job at a Budweiser distributor.
Hopkins, 41, is suing American Eagle Distributing Co., saying the company wrongly fired him for drinking Coors in a bar two years ago. "They flat-out told me: 'We're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?"' he said Tuesday. "I thought I could drink it, no problem."
Hopkins' lawsuit, filed in a Greeley, Colo., court, seeks unspecified damages for lost wages and benefits. No trial date has been set.
Jeff Bedingfield, a lawyer for the distributor, declined comment, saying: "American Eagle prefers not to try this case in the media."
Colorado law states workers cannot be fired for a legal activity while off duty and away from work. There are exceptions, such as when a worker's actions relate to an occupational requirement or create a conflict of interest.
In a court filing, American Eagle said Hopkins' termination "was necessary to avoid a conflict of interest with his responsibilities to American Eagle and/or the appearance of such a conflict of interest."
Hopkins, who was a warehouse supervisor for the distributor, said he was not wearing a uniform or representing American Eagle when he was at the bar in May 2003 with some co-workers. He said he had ordered a Budweiser but a waitress brought Coors. He decided to drink it because he didn't want to wait.
The son-in-law of the distributor's majority shareholder also was at the bar and offered twice to buy him a Budweiser but Hopkins turned it down both times.
He was fired the following Monday.
Whatever jerk.
First you all want to lecture me about re-posting some story from two weeks ago when it was me who posted this story. Then you ask why I posted the same story twice, which I never did. Then you want to give me some kind of English.
Why don't you quit trying to be the post police and let the moderator do his job
According to other stories I've heard he was wearing a uniform. I don't know whether he was or not.
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