Chutzpah

A Manhattan restaurant is suing all parties over lost revenue from the 3 day transit strike.

Owners of a theater district restaurant sued the Transport Workers Union, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city Thursday in what was apparently the first lawsuit over financial losses due to the transit strike.

Owners of the Russian Samovar, partly owned by dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov until earlier this year, said the walkout and restrictions on vehicles entering Manhattan had caused the West 52nd Street restaurant to suffer a loss of customers and revenue.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court, blames all sides of the labor dispute for the strike, saying the union struck illegally because the state's Taylor law bars walkouts by public employees, and because the same law forbids bargaining over public employees' retirement benefits.

The lawsuit says that when the parties to the negotiations reach a contract settlement, the businesses that lost money "have no place to go except to this court for relief from the outrageous, purposeful, illegal and intentionally harmful strike."

Vlada Von Shats, the restaurant's manager and the daughter of its owners, said the strike caused the Russian Samovar to lose 60 to 80 percent of its daily revenue.

John Nicholas Iannuzzi, lawyer for the restaurant's owners, said they were asking $25,000 for each day of the strike. He said he is also asking for class-action status and $5 million a day total for all other businesses affected by the strike.

I have no clue if they have a chance. I doubt it, because if they did other larger firms would have already filed. But I applaud both the nerve and the shrewdness of the move, especially from a marketing point of view. The Russian Samovar may not win a thin dime and will most likely end up with a fat legal bill. I am certain, however, they will get one very desirable outcome: a crowded dining room.

Comments

[Dave]

Not sure that larger firms' failure to file suit is a relevant proxy for the chances of this suit's success.

Larger companies may view any revenue they did not generate during the strike as a cost of doing business in New York City. The costs incurred in filing such a suit and having it wind its way through the courts surely exceeds the amount of revenues not generated during the strike.

[KipEsquire]

"I have no clue if they have a chance."

Let me provide the detailed, exhaustive analysis that this lawsuit deserves:

ROFLMAO