Lawsuit of the Day: Next Time, Get Delivery
We’ve all heard of the phrase DWB, or Driving While Black. How about PUPWB — Picking Up Pizza While Black?
From an article by Leigh Jones in the National Law Journal (via Paul Caron):
An African-American tax attorney who was held at gunpoint and handcuffed by police officers after a Papa John’s employee allegedly accused him of pulling a gun while buying a pizza has won an appeal in the Court of Appeals of Indiana.
Attorney Sanford Kelsey can move ahead to trial with his claims of false imprisonment, defamation, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the pizza chain.
Kelsey, who holds an LL.M. degree from Georgetown University Law Center, is a former attorney at Greenberg Taurig and at Indianapolis-based Ice Miller. He currently works as in-house counsel for a major packing and shipping corporation. The other plaintiff in the case is Thomas Williams, Kelsey’s friend, who is also African-American and was with him at the restaurant when the incident occurred.
The allegations are quite disturbing:
The July 11 decision by a three-judge panel overturns a trial court decision that granted summary judgment to Papa John’s and employee Kelly Tharp. … The decision stems from a February 2005 incident, when Kelsey and Williams went to a Papa John’s in Westfield, Indiana to pick up a pizza they had ordered. They paid for the pizza with a credit card. Kelsey, an attorney with the IRS at the time, was visiting Williams while in Indianapolis to interview for a job at a law firm there.According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, the employee, Tharp, falsely reported that the two men had brandished a gun and took money from the cash register. … [A]n unmarked police car was waiting for the two men when they arrived at Williams’s house after picking up their pizza. Several police cars arrived quickly upon their return and surrounded their car. The police ordered them out of their car at gunpoint, ordered them to their knees and handcuffed them. They were detained for about 90 minutes while their family and friends watched. No gun was found.
The Papa John’s motto is “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza.” Better employees, not so much:
Tharp had worked at two other Papa John’s, where he was previously terminated for theft, rehired under a false name, and rehired again using his father’s name, according to the decision.
We can’t blame Tharp too much. If you were a guy named “Kelly,” wouldn’t you go by a false name too?
African-American attorney held at gunpoint will get his day in court [National Law Journal]
African-American Tax Lawyer & IRS Attorney Held at Gunpoint by Police After Buying Pizza Proceed With Lawsuit [TaxProf Blog]
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Comments
wow! but hey its indiana
This makes me worry about Obama's chances in the Hoosier State.
But he is a neighboring-state senator.
Lat, you need to fix the copy to give "Williams" some antecedent.
Also, the World Middleweight boxing champion is named Kelly (Pavlik).
Delivery hell. We have much better pizza joints (and three of the worst, of which one is Papa Johns).
Probably won't win on I.I.E.D. or false imprisonment. Intentional torts are generally outside the scope of employment, and being a cashier at a pizza joint isn't the kind of job that involves force or tension. That is, unless the employee was deemed as attempting to bring about Papa John's purposes.
Look at me, I am going to pass. Then again I am at ATL instead of studying.
Opinion:
http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/07110801msm.pdf
Papa John's to Denny's Moons Over My No-Blacks-Allowed Hammy!
Next time use Seamless Web!
Kelly Tharp to banjo lessons!
Uh, that is a pretty cursory analysis. Both IIED and FI appear to be within the scope on these facts; part of an employee at a cash register's duties are to call the police if someone (ostenisbly) robs it. Police themselves are mere instrumentality.
Negligent supervision? All day long - the previous instances of misconduct fall within the scope of the tortious conduct at issue here and therefore is foreseeable and puts the employer on notice.
Better start analyzing those facts if you wanna pass.
kelly is an irish surname that is popularized as a given name, much like ryan. so, to the extent that 'ryan' or 'donovan' are effeminate, kelly is too.
and no, my name isn't kelly - though i am irish.
And you missed respondeat superior.
Once Barack Obama brings hope back to America and transcends our racial divide this sort of thing won't happen ever again.
3:45: What 5:52 said. Plus, this was a motion for summary judgment, and so those were precisely the kinds of legal issues that the court would be (and, in fact, did) deal with.
And you wondered why they made you note the "procedural posture" in your case briefs first year of law school?
@3:52 I never mentioned that he couldn't succeed on negligent supervision, you prick!
On p.12 n.6, the court denies the applicability of the holding of Rambo v. Cohen, 587 N.E.2d 140, 146 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992), stating, "We have expressly disavowed the Rambo premise."
For whatever reason, that line just about made my day.
Yeah 3:53, except that, etymology aside, Kelly is a girl's name.
3:53 = dude named Kelly.
Since when do you need more than a cursory analysis to pass the bar
3:59, the quote may well have made your day, but wouldn't it be more apropos to say that it drew first blood? Or, perhaps, "God didn't disavow the Rambo premise, I did."
The Rambo Premise is the greatest thing I've ever heard.
@4:04 Never. Seriously. It's not that big of a deal, just don't freak out. I had a friend who answered a question entirely wrong and passed, and others who didn't even finish. You'll be fine, just don't freak out.
Oh 3:57, no need to be nasty, I just want you to pass.
4:04 has it right, cursory is more than good enough.
Papa John's should have settled on these facts well before getting to this stage. Now they will probably settle AND have the adverse publicity.
Worse than the Papa John's idiocy is that the police reacted so strongly even after knowing that the accusation was false - the court noted that the police officer could tell that the gun thing was a lie at the time - Tharp couldn't have seen what he said he saw.
Dear Lat:
Please ban 1L gunners and recent grads studying for the bar from posting comments.
tyia
5:31, does that apply to 2L and 3L gunners also, or just to 1Ls and recent grads
I love that the advertisement on the right features a rapper... great product placement ....
In a slashdot sort of way, I'm to busy to read the article. Is he just suing Papa Johns? I've dealt with a few false arrest/false imprisonment settlement cases and know that the guy could get another 10k easy from the police for his trouble. Not to mention several hundred from papa johns. Put it it in front of a jury, he'll get millions.
who are papa john's lawyers? Loyola grads? I would have settled this just to avoid it getting filed. Even if they did win, it could look bad.
I once got arrested paying a speeding ticket. And I didn't even have a gun. Then one of the officers asked me to blow him. I politely declined, and had to wait two hours for them to let me go to an ATM (I was five dollars short).
I hope these men sue everyone! And I am glad about the press. Papa John's pizzas are TTT! And the police, as one rapper said (can't remember which one, but probably more than one ;)), f%$# the police!
I'm from Indiana, and I know that town (Westfield). That town is notoriously racist. Being of color myself, I'd feel safer in the 9th ward of New Orleans than if I were by myself in Westfield.
What kind of counsel would advise their client to fight this? The legal theory - a notorious liar is now telling the truth!
I've read a lot about this Kelly Tharp - he used his dead fathers name and social security number to get this job at PJ's...... can you get much lower??? It seems he CAN - I read somewhere that this mental giant STOLE money from his mother who was DYING from cancer and THEN stole his SISTERS credit card and maxed it before she found out and totally WRECKED her credit. What a great person.