Pizza Hut Judgment Tossed

Sat., Sept. 2, 2000

A judge immediately threw out a jury’s decision Friday that Pizza Hut of America Inc. should pay $1.25 million to a black family for allowing a worker to send a receipt containing a racist slur.

The six-member jury found that the company intentionally discriminated against Eugenia Gray, her mother Peggy Watson and her stepfather Lorenzo Watson when the slur was delivered to their home along with a pizza in August 1998.

In rejecting the jury’s award, U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett said no reasonable jury could have found Pizza Hut liable and held them responsible for the actions of a single employee. She sent the case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The jury deliberated nearly five hours before awarding the family $1 million in punitive damages and $250,000 in compensatory damages after a two-day trial.

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Pizza Hut Judgment Tossed

Jesse Tinsley

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