DARLENE NOBLIN, Complainant

ALLEN HILL, Complainant

SANDRA BLUE, Complainant

DENNY'S RESTAURANT, Respondent

An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Equal Rights Division of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission agrees with the decision of the ALJ, and it adopts the findings and conclusion in that decision as its own.

The decision of the administrative law judge (copy attached) is affirmed.

Dated and mailed February 13, 2004
noblida . rsd : 125 : 9

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ James T. Flynn, Commissioner

/s/ Robert Glaser, Commissioner

The complainants, Darlene Noblin, Allen Hill and Sandra Blue, allege that the respondent, a restaurant, denied them full and equal enjoyment of a public place of accommodation on account of their race. The complainants are black.

The complainants allege they were denied service in that their white server told them they could only order fried food. The complainants assert that they did not hear this same server tell a group of four or five white customers who were seated after them at a table next to them that they could only order fried food. Further, they allege that the food Ms. Blue ordered, chicken fried steak, was undercooked, causing Ms. Blue, as well as Ms. Noblin and Mr. Hill, who had eaten some of Ms. Blue's food, to become ill.

The evidence fails to show that the complainants were limited to ordering fried foods because of their race. The complainants entered the respondent's restaurant very late on the night of April 12, 2001. The restaurant closes at 1 a.m. A second server on duty on the night in question testified that after the complainants were seated the complainants' server walked by her and stated "fried food only" in case she got another customer before closing. The second server testified that she had known the complainants' server to tell customers they could only order fried food so that he could get out of work sooner at the end of the night. Limiting customers to ordering fried foods reduced the amount of work that had to be done at the end of the night. While the complainants all asserted they did not hear their server tell the white customers they could only order fried foods when the white customers were seated, complainant Hill admits that he did not know what the server had told the white customers when they entered the restaurant. There is no reason to believe that Ms. Noblin or Ms. Blue knew what the white customers had been told upon entering the restaurant either. Additionally, the complainants all admit that when the restaurant manager came to their table he stated that he did not know what was going on and that they could order anything they wanted from the menu.

The complainants also failed to show that the cook had intentionally undercooked Ms. Blue's food because they were black, as they were unable to establish that the cook who had prepared Ms. Blue's food knew they were black. Furthermore, the manager apologized to the complainants for the poor service they had received and did not require them to pay for the food that had been served to them.

The complainants have not shown by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the respondent violated the Wisconsin Public Accommodations and Amusements Law by denying them the full and equal enjoyment of a public place of accommodation because of their race.

cc: 

Allen Hill

Attorney Angela McKenzie
Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan

[ Search ER Decisions ] - - [ ER Decision Digest ] - - [ ER Legal Resources ] - - [ LIRC Home Page ]

uploaded 2004/02/17