Single Discrimination? Chick Sues for (Alleged) Restaurant Diss

April 20th, 2015. By LucyC

Valentine’s gone sideways? Maybe. This is an interesting and slightly odd lawsuit filed by one Kathleen Hampton of Portland, OR. She is suing Enzo’s Caffe Italiano, in Portland, alleging they refused to serve her on Valentine’s Day because she came into the restaurant solo. Yeah, well, it was Valentine’s deary, one of the top business nights in restaurant land.

But Kathleen, not faint of heart I must admit, bravely decided F@*! it, when her husband allegedly declined to join her for dinner out, and off she went to Enzo’s. When she arrived, they were busy, no surprise there, and instead of giving her the reserved table for two, they ignored her, refused to take her order, and wouldn’t allow her to do take-away. That’s her version. Oh, and that they didn’t serve her because of her race (African-American).

Needless to say, on a busy restaurant night, a cover’s a cover and if you’re one person taking up two seats well….

So according to the restaurant owner, they offered her a seat at the bar, with other singletons. Ok, this is the stuff of Bridget Jones nightmares! She had two glasses of wine and left without paying. (Who knows what she had, but a 2007 Gaja Barbaresco would’ve gone down nicely…)

What to do with all those allegations of lousy service? Drumroll please—Kathleen decided to sue the restaurant. For $100,000 and an apology. Now, she may not have grounds for the lawsuit except if she can prove deliberate infliction of emotional distress. She can’t claim, for example, that Enzo’s refusal to seat her at the table was negligent or an assault, or that it resulted in personal harm or trespass, oh no—most certainly not trespass.

If we take a page from our aforementioned singleton heroine, Bridget Jones, being shuffled off to the bar with other similarly situated people—i.e. Singletons, at least on the premises—is certainly cause emotional distress. It’s enough to warrant walking out of the restaurant, sobbing, proceeding straight home and polishing off that bottle of Pinot Grigio (the horror!) and possibly the remnants of the vodka, passing out on the sofa, only to wake up the next morning—well actually more like noon—feeling like sh*t, physically and emotionally, then remembering you’ve missed half a day at work. Awesome! And ALL because you couldn’t get the f%#@ing spaghetti bolognese, seated, as planned. It’s a terrible state of affairs!

On the other hand, if you’re married like Kathleen, and your hubby just chose to stay home, it probably wasn’t the best night of the year to have dinner out stag, and perhaps ordering in some pizza might have proven the wiser choice. That might’ve netted a convenient (read: no need to cook) dinner at home with the hubby and a little Valentine’s Day celebration away from the hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant.

Thrilling? Probably not. Haute Cuisine? Definitely not. But then again, you wouldn’t have wound up trying to sue anybody. Worst case, you might only have woken up the next morning reflecting on the previous night with a “gee whiz” and feeling a bit of a gluten-belly bloat–at least you wouldn’t have a hangover and/or a possible attorney fee.

Kathleen opted for the lawsuit route, as we know…

Severe emotional distress—FYI—varies in definition from case to case. Some courts have held that emotional distress is severe if it manifests as some kind of bodily harm, such as an ulcer or headaches. What about hangovers?

PS…so far, the quiet party in all this has been Kathleen’s husband. No matter…KOIN 6 reports that the case has been dismissed with prejudice. (Isn’t it ironic?)

 

This was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2015 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.