Jury awards family $600K in Denny's suit 26 minutes ago

Jury awards family $600K in Denny's suit 26 minutes ago



EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A jury has ordered the Denny's restaurant chain to pay $600,000 to 15 members of a black family who claimed their white waiter deliberately ignored them and used racial slurs.

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The federal jury awarded each family member $5,000 in compensatory damages and $35,000 in punitive damages on Friday.

Sandra Green's family sued over a November 2003 meal at a Denny's restaurant in the St. Louis suburb of Fairview Heights. The waiter, who later was fired, allegedly served white patrons and ignored the family. Some of Green's family members said they had to get their own drinks, utensils and napkins.

"It's not really about the money. We don't want another black family or our children to have to go through what we went through," family member Charles Tart Sr. said.

Ed Ordonez, an attorney for Spartanburg, S.C.-based Denny's Corp., told jurors that the Green family had received bad service but they were not harmed.

He said the company will decide whether to appeal.