According to documents filed Monday, Batali, Bastianich, and their company Pasta Resources Inc. agreed to pay out $5.25 million in a class action settlement[/color]. Since 2010, the case against Babbo grew into a full on legal maelstrom as more and more restaurants and workers joined the suit and it was given class action status. According to the original complaint, managers deducted four to five percent of each shift's wine and alcohol sales from the tip pool and denied the workers "spread of hour" pay for those worker more than 10 hours in a day.
Batali and Bastianich argued that Del Posto, Esca, and Lupa should be exempt from the suit since they didn't employ the practices, but the judge believed it was a company-wide policy.
According to the agreement, reported by Law 360, the funds will be divided among all captains, servers, waiters, bussers, runners, backwaiters, bartenders and barbacks who work or worked at Babbo, Bar Jamon, Casa Mono, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa, Otto or Tarry Lodge between July 2004 and February 2012.[color=red] Thorn in the industry's side D. Maimon Kirschenbaum and his fellow lawyers are requesting to keep one third of the settlement as payment.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
According to the original complaint, managers deducted four to five percent of each shift's wine and alcohol sales from the tip pool
this is done ALL the time......if it's a cash bar!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Suit seeks more than $1 million in back tips from Mallozzis Monday, April 15, 2013 by: Steve Barnes, senior writer
A New York City attorney who has won settlements from the biggest names in the restaurant business including Mario Batali is now representing a former server for the Schenectady-based Mallozzi Group, who claims the company kept more than $1 million in tips intended for banquet waitstaff.
The server, Ryan Picard, claims the company collected a 20 percent “service personnel charge” on banquet contracts but gave none of it to him and more than 100 other servers.
The suit cites a 2008 state Court of Appeals decision in the case Samiento v. World Yacht, which ruled that any “charge purported to be a gratuity” — and, importantly, charges that customers believe will go to staff — cannot be kept by the company.
The Mallozzi Group runs a bakery and restaurant in Schenectady, a banquet hall and hotel in Rotterdam, restaurant and banquet hall in Albany and food service at two area golf courses.
Typically in the Capital Region, unlike restaurant servers, who are hourly paid less than minimum wage but keep all of their tips, banquet waitstaff gets a much higher flat pay — $12 to $15 an hour isn’t unusual — but none of the 18 to 20 percent that is added to banquet contracts.
At issue in the Mallozzi case is whether the “service personnel charge” was suggested to be or understood by customers as a fee, like a tip, to be paid to the servers. (Some banquet operations now use terms like “administrative surcharge” to clarify the fee isn’t meant for servers.) The suit contends a “reasonable customer” would have believed waitstaff would get the service charge, according to Marlene Kennedy of Courthouse News Service.
Jeannette Bowers, operations director for the Mallozzi Group, tells me banquet contracts have never used the words “tip” or “gratuity.” She says the company has never told, suggested or implied to customers that the charge would be passed along to servers; however, she says, any additional funds above the 20 percent that customers choose to leave are given in full to waitstaff.
Bobby Mallozzi told The Daily Gazette that Picard, who worked for the company for two years, is a disgruntled former employee, adding:
I want to be clear that this lawsuit has absolutely no merit, and we will vigorously fight it.
Picard is represented by Maimon Kirschenbaum of the New York City firm of Joseph & Kirschenbaum, who refers to himself as “New York restaurateurs’ most feared attorney.” His bio boasts that he has “recovered tens of millions of wages and tips stolen from workers in the hospitality industry.” Besides Batali, his targets have included Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Drew Nieporent, Keith McNally and Masaharu Morimoto. The restaurant website Eater frequently refers to the attorney as a “thorn in the restaurant industry’s side.”
Last summer, Batali and his business partner Joe Bastianich agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle a class-action suit for skimming tips and other wage and labor violations at their empire of restaurants. Kirschenbaum led the suit.
Typically in the Capital Region, unlike restaurant servers, who are hourly paid less than minimum wage but keep all of their tips, banquet waitstaff gets a much higher flat pay — $12 to $15 an hour isn’t unusual — but none of the 18 to 20 percent that is added to banquet contracts.
many of these banquet places DO pay their wait staff more so they don't have to give up the 20% 'administrative/gratuity' fee. in some cases the pay falls short when they are paid this higher hourly rate which doesn't include the 20%.....but not in all cases. depends on the size of the 'banquet'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Looks like this Kirshenbaum has defeated TWO iron chefs
I guess Bob knows about frivolous lawsuits
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Lawsuit: Brown Derby owners owe Albany landlord $1.5M Mallozzis allegedly kept rent, fixtures Wednesday, April 24, 2013 By Bethany Bump (Contact) Gazette Reporter
ALBANY — An Albany landlord says the Mallozzi Group not only stopped paying rent last summer at the now-shuttered Brown Derby but also alleges that it abandoned and gutted the place, taking equipment and fixtures it didn’t own to help furnish a new restaurant it was planning for Schenectady.
University Development LLC hurled a slew of accusations at the Mallozzi family in a 12-page complaint filed last week in Supreme Court in Albany County. Chief among them was the claim that the Mallozzi Group unfairly benefited at its expense by diverting resources away from lease obligations and using them to pay other obligations and open a new restaurant. In all, University Development wants at least $1.5 million from the family-owned restaurant and catering company.
The Mallozzi Group owns and operates a number of Capital Region establishments. In August 2012, it announced it would close the Brown Derby, a 138-seat restaurant it had opened four years earlier in downtown Albany as a modern and local re-imagining of the original Hollywood Brown Derby.
“The Brown Derby failed to meet revenue projections while our other six locations continue to perform extremely well,” said co-owner Bobby Mallozzi at the time. “As we move forward, we will continue to expand our operations in the Capital Region.”
Soon after, the Mallozzi Group announced its plans for a family-friendly Italian restaurant across from Proctors Theatre in Schenectady. And last month, Johnny’s Restaurant opened to much fanfare by local officials.
In 2008, Mallozzi Group co-owners John and Bobby Mallozzi entered into a 10-year lease agreement with University Development LLC for part of 22 Clinton Ave. Among other things, the lease required monthly payments of $11,500 until January 2012, when an amendment increased the amount to $14,000 a month.
The landlord is alleging that the Mallozzis haven’t paid rent since September 2012, right after they announced the operations would close.
The Mallozzis did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
University Development LLC says it was convinced to enter into the lease because the Mallozzi family had been in the restaurant business since 1965 and University Development was told it “could rely upon that expertise and the personal involvement of the Mallozzi family to insure [sic] a successful venture.”
In addition, the landlord says, it made “significant and costly improvements” to the premises at the Mallozzis’ request, with the family agreeing to pay the more than $435,000 in improvements back over the term of the lease.
“It was restaurant equipment and restaurant fixtures that had been installed at the Brown Derby in downtown Albany, and we believe they have been installed and are now being used at Johnny’s in Schenectady,” said attorney Mary Elizabeth Slevin of Albany firm Stockli Slevin & Peters LLP.
She declined to specify exactly what equipment was taken.
The suit further alleges that the Mallozzis “vacated and abandoned” the Brown Derby property without giving “direct notice of any kind” to the landlord. Since then, they have refused to make any rent payments, even after the landlord notified them Sept. 10 they were in default.
On Sept. 18, University Development sent a letter to the Mallozzi Group demanding it pay the entire balance of the lease, as well as late fees and any other required sums. It has yet to do so, the suit alleges. As of April 16, the Mallozzis owed just more than $1 million.
The suit lists multiple causes of action against the Mallozzis, including breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unjust enrichment — all for failing to pay rent, failing to provide lien releases and other documentation required by its lease, taking fixtures and equipment without consent or compensation and then using them for their own benefit.
The landlord contends that because of breached obligations it has suffered more than $1.5 million in damages, and it is demanding full restoration and restitution.
The Mallozzi Group is in the middle of another lawsuit as well. A former server has accused the company of cheating its servers out of more than $1 million worth of tips. The company denied all accusations in that suit, which has yet to be resolved.
Well aren't these folks fitting right in with the criminality which has plagued the City of Schenectady for decades.
Hey Gillen, guessing the Malozzis will be asking for yet another non-interest loan from you. Bet the ink has not dried from the last check you sent them.
ANOTHER LAWSUIT FOR 1 Million PLUS!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Wait a minute, is THIS true? Or it is one of the right wing hit machine's well-oiled hit attempts? Ask JoeBxr.
Business ethics 101 is a class some people skip.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Someone called today and asked "Care to bet what the Lame-mozzies will be sued for a million for next week?"
Sometimes you can set your watch by these things! SORRY! I couldn't resist!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
It is dully noted that the big (in more ways than one) cheerleader for the dems and Mallozzi's is refusing to comment.
Maybe the big cheerleader can explain how these multimillionaires are getting STAR basic exemptions on their homes when owners are NOT allowed to get such exemptions if incomes exceed $500,000.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
ANOTHER LAWSUIT FOR 1 Million PLUS!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Wait a minute, is THIS true? Or it is one of the right wing hit machine's well-oiled hit attempts? Ask JoeBxr.
Business ethics 101 is a class some people skip.
Why ask me...I have no knowledge about any of this....you seem to be the one with all the knowledge (TIC) as the KING TOWN CLOWN NO IT ALL!!!! So you explain it in real English words and complete sentences so that we all know the truth.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
i'm sure that a few million will be just a drop in the bucket for the lozzi's when they lose both of these suits. They have surely saved 10x's that amount in tax exemptions alone!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Joebxr claimed earlier this is all a pile of bunk. Looks like someone pissed off God. Don't piss off God, Joebxr. Your false prophet may be money, but it is a dangerous prophet. Besides, it is not your money and they will never give you any
Recently they Lame-mozzis hosted a big party at the compound reminiscent of the party in "The Godfather." Nonetheless at all the other parties they had FDG, who was their pal. Now, FDG was not invited but the Buffont Hairdoed one was. Apparently FDG can longer serve their purposes, being out of power. So much for loyalty to friends, which as I have come to understand this clan- they are friends only with la famiglia and coin.
In the bible, Jesus warns "If you are lukewarm, I shall spit you out." As I said, someone is getting spit out. However, I am not a preachy one so you can decide what the result of "karma" is.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Logged
