Dyson, et al. v. Denny's, Inc.
On April 1, 1993, six African-American on-duty officers in the U.S. Secret Service were refused service for more than an hour when they attempted to order breakfast. Meanwhile, their white fellow officers at a nearby table were served without incident.
After the six officers filed suit, thousands of other customers reported that they had experienced similar discriminatory incidents at Denny's Restaurants nationwide.
Eventually, the suit involved class members in 49 states. On May 24, 1994, Denny's and 18 named plaintiffs settled the case for a record $17.725 million. Each officer received $35,000, and the other named plaintiffs received $15,000. In all, checks were mailed to more than 130,000 class members, making this the largest class action settlement distribution to date in a public accommodations discrimination case.
In addition, Denny's signed a consent decree, which placed the corporation under an extensive court order to provide nondiscrimination training to its employees and to monitor and report future instances of discrimination. John Relman was co-lead counsel in this class action lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of the plaintiffs by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, with the assistance of the law firm of Hogan & Hartson. The suit received extensive press coverage, including The New York Times Magazine (Nov. 6, 1994) cover story.
"Denny's Restaurants to pay $54 million in bias suits," The New York Times (May 25, 1994)
"Plaintiffs enjoy an anti-bias victory," The Washington Post (May 25, 1994)
"Denny's gets a bill for the side orders of bigotry," The New York Times (May 29, 1994)
"Service with a sneer," The New York Times Magazine (Nov. 6, 1994)
http://www.relmanlaw.com/cases.html
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