In case you don’t know the story, 19-year-old Sarah Foust and three of her buddies got shnookered at a Bennigan’s one night (I assume fake IDs were involved), running up a $130 tab in the process. They didn’t have the money to pay the bill; they had apparently planned to run out on the check at the end of the night.
When they were attempting to do just that, Jennifer Sanchez (a waitress there) followed them out of the restaurant, and stood behind Foust’s car to get the license plate number. Foust proceeded to back into Sanchez, throwing her on top of the car. She then accelerated and turned sharply, throwing Sanchez from the roof. She died from her injuries later that day.
Anyway - it is indeed a pleasant surprise that this jury threw the book at Foust (who doesn’t even have a driver’s license by the way). It’ll be 15 years before she’s eligible for parole. You can read about it here.
So what do you think? Too much on the punishment? Not enough? I personally think it’s about right. It certainly won’t be no cake walk in the tea park. Being in prison from the age of 20 to at least 35 has got to suck. Also, she has a kid (I’m not sure how old it is) that will be pretty much all grown up when she gets out. All for a $130 check.
The other part of the story is the fact that the parents of the victim are apparently suing Bennigan’s for not discouraging their servers to avoid this kind of situation. They’re alleging that Bennigan’s hold’s servers accountable for the money lost from skipped-out-on checks. I can’t find the link to this story now for some reason, but I’ll add it in if I stumble across it.
So, any Bennigan’s waiters (or waitresses) in here? Or any food-service people from any restaurant? What have you been told to do in that type of situation?
I can tell you that Pizza Hut used to do that, back in the day when I worked for them (which is almost 15 years ago now). It was unwritten policy that if you had a table hog’n’jog, you were expected to cover the tab out of your tips.
I refused to do it. (I worked in a Pizza Hut close to a major university; hog’n’jogs were not uncommon; and there was no way to work your section effectively and keep people from walking out – you have to go in the back sometime.) I told my manager that I didn’t think it was fair to hold me responsible for other people’s dishonesty, when I was doing my best. I told him if he wanted me to cover the tab he’d have to take the money out of my paycheck. He never did, I assume because he knew that that would be evidence of the practice and if I chose to make a stink about it I’d have my pay stubs to back me up.
But it’s a common practice, to hold the waiters responsible – or at least make them think you will hold them responsible.
Oh, I don’t know. If I was working at a Bennigan’s and thought I’d get stiffed for $130 that I’d have to make up, I’d be out in the parking lot getting the license number, too. If it’s a corporate policy to make servers pay for dine and dashes, they have to be responsible for the consequences, too.
I’d usually agree. But if Bennigan’s had a policy like those mentioned above, I think they should be held responsible. $130 is a lot of money to lose out of your tips. It shouldn’t be up to her to perform security duties.
I think Bennigan’s is significantly less at fault than, say, the bitch who stepped on the gas and hit the waitress. They ought to name her in a civil suit. Why don’t they? Well, Bennigan’s has deeper pockets. Sad sad sad.
If I worked as a server and someone skipped on the tab, I’d be out in the parking lot trying to get a license plate too, even if I didn’t have to pay for it. I mean, crap, that’s stealing, and it sickens me that they’d try to do that and then get away with it by simply driving away. I’d do it even if I was just patron.
I wondered if any DFW folks would start a thread on this subject - for some reason, I don’t think this story received national coverage like other “murderous driver” ones have recently.
I guess Foust’s sentence was fair, who knows. She made the biggest idiot of herself on the stand, bawling and blubbering - I couldn’t stand to watch the coverage.
As for Bennigan’s, I don’t think it’s fair for a waiter/waitress to lose money when patrons skip the tab. I mean, how can they be expected to keep their eye on every diner at all times?
I bet the fact that Foust and her under-age buddies were served alcoholic beverages will come up in that civil suit. Although, I don’t think I have ever seen a clarification on one point - did the girl she killed serve those drinks?
Sad story, in any case.
This was not just a traffic accident. The car was parked before the driver chose to back into the waitress. It couldn’t have been more ruthless if she had used a gun. I don’t see the sentence as too harsh.
Holding a waitress responsible for a hog-n-jog(I like that term! Never heard it before, but it is appropriate) sounds pretty low. Not sure how well the suit will go though. Even if they’re supposed to be responsible for the charges the policy is certainly not intended to cause confrontations. Personally I think 7-Eleven has the right idea.
I think the waitress was clearly not following company policy when she went outside to get the license number. This may be enough to get Bennagins off the hook although I still think their policy(if they hold employees responsible for dine-n-dash) sucks and should be changed. The question is, should an employer be held responsible for what they didn’t forbid? They didn’t take the kind of steps 7-eleven took in absolutely forbidding confrontations, does that make them at fault if one occurs? I guess it could be argued that they implicitly encourage confrontations by punishing the server if someone gorges-n-goes. The basic case was very straightforward(and I’m glad they threw the book at her, that was a despicable act), this side suit is much hairier.
As far as I know, in Minnesota it is illegal to hold the server responsible for a dine-n-dash. It’s part of the cost of doing business. When I managed a restaurant, I would try to get a license plate, never was quick enough. I would just comp the meal on the computer.
Why would she not be following company policy? Is Bennigans and 7-11 the same company? Just because 7-11 has a non-confrontation policy does not mean Benniagans does.
Also going out to get a plate number is hardly a confrontation. If she yanked open the door and tried to pull the driver out, that would be a confrontation.
Your ‘just becase they didn’t ban it’ does not quite wash either. Bennigans is clear that that wait staff will be punished by loss of pay if their customers steal.
30 years is not enough in my opinion. I wouldn’t want her up for parole in less than 25 years.
Did her drunk friends get any punishment or did they help with the prosecution?
I know zero about Bennigan’s policies. I am doubtful that they have a non-confrontation policy like 7-Eleven. I believe it would have been all over the news and the lawsuit in question would have been a non-starter if such a policy existed. I also believe the company, while not specifically prohibiting it, almost certainly does nothing, policy wise, to encourage confrontations between servers and hog-n-joggers. I would guess that training for the job doesn’t involve instruction to follow inebriated bill-jumpers out to the parking lot and block their vehicle in while you write down the license plate. I’m not sure how much blame, if any, Bennigan’s bears here. 7-Eleven’s policies are not binding on anyone else, even if I happen to think they are the best to use.
There are two questions here. Firstly, did Bennigans implicitly encourage the confrontation by it’s alleged policy of a server being docked wages if a customer skips out on the tab. It seems this is the question you believe is the crux of the issue. I agree that if Bennigan’s has a policy and encourages waitstaff to do what they can to prevent tab-jumpers, then they bear some blame.
Secondly, this is a seperate issue and assumes a negative result on the first question, is not specifically disavowing a specific action as a matter of policy enough to indemnify an employer of responsibility? Meaning, even if Bennigan’s is considered to have not encouraged Ms Sanchez to go after and confront deadbeat customers, are they still partly responsible because they didn’t actively discourage such actions?
There is a spectrum here. They could encourage(although certainly not overtly) employees to be confrontational with a bill-jumper. They could be neutral on the issue, or they could forbid(as 7-Eleven does) any confrontation. The first scenario would have them bear some of the blame for the incident. The third would cleary absolve them of any blame. It is the question of the middle position that interests me. You, Zebra seem to believe the company’s policies fall into the first category. Providing motivation for confrontations with bill-jumpers and elevating the risk of employees being injured(or killed) in these confrontations. I’m fine with that. I haven’t read or researched the issue enough to have a position on that bit yet. I’m still mulling it all over and looking at the various types of interaction the parties involved(Bennigan’s policies, the customer, and the waitress) may have had and where responsibility would fall depending on the positions of each.
I think she should have gotten life in prison with no parole. She killed someone while committing a crime. She should never see the light of day as a free person. Let her rot.
Well if she couldn’t handle a $130 dollar tab and the minor jail/community service/fine she’d have got for it prison will certainly be one hell of an eye opener!
I think the sentence was fair maybe a tad short for my taste but
15 yrs as some big girl’s girlfriend is okay with me:D
As a delivery person/server I would have been trying to get the liscence plate number as well… tho I dont think I would have been standing that close. I guess it was night so Ms. Sanchez couldnt see too well… all in all a terrible tragedy.
Technically, no, they cannot. It is against most states’ labor laws.
In practice however, a lot of restaurants get away with this kind of crap. Because people don’t know the law, or they’re too afraid of being fired and losing their jobs to report it.
What Guin said. They’re not supposed to hold the server responsible, but many do anyway. I worked for a resteraunt that tried to pull this on me (very breifly for this reason amongst others) and I simply told them “no.” They told me it was company policy and I told them it was also illegal and if they tried to force me I’d sue. They backed down.
A lot of servers aren’t familiar with labor laws though, and believe this practice is actually legal. If Bennigans tried to threaten their servers with this kind of bullshit policy, I hope they get the pants sued off of them. Maybe it’ll bring this subject out into the open and force resteraunts to stop doing this.
My wife and I were in a Red Lobster a few years ago, and we overheard a waitress complaining to one of her custmoers that a woman who had been in the room a few minutes ago had run out without paying her bill, and that the manager would make her make the bill up.
My respect for Red Lobster went down several notches that day, it’s wAAAAy down there now. Sorry to hear they’re not unique.