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Law360 (September 11, 2020, 4:38 PM EDT) -- Two Black Arkansas residents have filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Landry's Inc. that alleges a white mob viciously attacked them at the company's Saltgrass Steak House in Little Rock after the restaurant's managers failed to remove a group violating COVID-19 social distancing protocols.
Shayla Hooks and Tyrone Jackson sued Landry's on Thursday for alleged negligence, racial discrimination and defamation following an altercation at the steakhouse on the evening of June 27. The couple says that they wore face masks and abided by the state's social distancing requirements inside the restaurant, but that the steakhouse was overcrowded and in violation of Arkansas' COVID-19 maximum capacity requirements.
The couple alleges that shortly after they sat down in the restaurant, a tour bus pulled up and an all-white group of unmasked people from Louisiana entered the eatery. They say the group members failed to socially distance themselves. The couple says their troubles began when the group tried to sit within 6 feet of them and a manager failed to enforce social distancing policies.
Hooks and Jackson allege that when they protested, the members of the tour bus group — including a man named Robert Willis — swore at them, made racial innuendos, intentionally coughed on them and made unwanted physical contact with them.
The couple says they were "viciously physically attacked but did their best to defend themselves despite being vastly outnumbered by the white mob from the tour bus."
According to the suit, Hooks suffered a black eye during the attack, much of which was captured on video.
The couple also claims that after the altercation, a restaurant employee made false representations when interviewed by police officers. They say the employee falsely stated that Willis was sitting several seats away from the couple and that it was instead Hooks who intentionally coughed on the tour bus group.
A spokesperson for Texas-based Landry's — which also owns and operates Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Morton's The Steakhouse, Rainforest Cafe and other restaurant chains — said on Friday that the lawsuit is frivolous and that Jackson started the fight.
"Saltgrass Steakhouse is a family oriented restaurant which serves hundreds of thousands of customers at 87 restaurants nationwide. Our doors are open to customers of all races, ethnicities and national origins. Unfortunately, on June 27 an assailant started a fight in our restaurant which began and ended with his violent acts, endangering numerous employees and innocent bystanders," a Landry's spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Law360.
"In a distasteful ploy the assailant and his counsel have attempted to extort a $2 million payment from Saltgrass, and have now filed a frivolous lawsuit and are conducting a media campaign to publicize the fight as an act of racial injustice caused by our family friendly restaurant," the Landry's spokesperson said.
The company further said that the restaurant "had no role in this unfortunate incident."
"Saltgrass Steakhouse supports the movement to end racial injustice and denounces intolerant and violent behavior of any kind in its restaurants," the spokesperson said. "Saltgrass will not compensate these individuals for a fight that began and ended with their violent acts."
But the Arkansas couple alleges that Landry's "unconscionable passing of the buck for enforcing COVID-19 protocol to plaintiffs resulted in serious physical injuries and emotional distress to plaintiffs and, in today's unfortunate social climate, it surely could have gotten them killed."
Their attorney, Michael J. Laux of the Laux Law Firm, said his clients didn't start the fight and that the video makes that clear.
"What Landry's fails to understand is that its manager's abdication of her duties set the stage for everything that followed. Passing the buck to my clients to enforce the state's COVID-19 laws was reckless and unconscionable, and it will not work in court as a defense," Laux told Law360 on Friday.
The couple is seeking a declaratory judgment, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
Hooks and Jackson are represented by Michael J. Laux of the Laux Law Firm.
Counsel information for Landry's could not immediately be determined.
The case is Shayla Hooks et al. v. Landry's Inc., case number 4:20-cv-01078, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
