06/27/2009
From Overlawyered.com:
Springfield, Mass.: The parents’ suit charges that the chain wrongfully sent Corey Lind out to deliver pizza to dangerous and unknown addresses; he was ambushed and murdered in 2007. Noteworthy angle:
According to the suit, prior to 2000 Domino’s had a policy of not making or of limiting deliveries to certain areas.
As a result of discrimination claims against the company, the federal Department of Justice investigated the policy. The result was an agreement between the government and Domino’s establishing procedures Domino’s could use to limit or stop deliveries to certain areas based on safety.
The suit said that Domino’s required all stores to implement a Limited Delivery Service Policy which, among other things, would evaluate each store’s delivery and service area and provide for the safety of delivery workers.[Parents of murdered delivery man Corey Lind sue Domino’s Pizza for $15 million, By Buffy Spencer, MassLive.com, June 17, 2009 ]
Another case of "Civil Rights Law Doesn’t Care If You Die" — the Justice Department insisted that Domino’s deliver to dangerous areas where their drivers could be robbed and killed because in the nature of things, such areas are largely black and Hispanic areas. (Lind was killed by a man named Alex Morales.)Also a case of "Disparate Impact." Now Domino’s is being sued, in effect, for following the Justice Department’s diktat.
A separate issue is Domino’s policy of not allowing drivers to defend themselves — one of the Overlawyered.com commenters writes:
A long time ago, I was working a couple of part-time jobs at the same time. During the day I worked as an armed security guard and at night I delivered pizzas for Domino’s. Even though I had all of the necessary certifications and permits to carry a weapon, I was told that I was not permitted to be armed while making deliveries. About 2 months after I started, I was robbed and beaten up pretty good. When I went back to work, I said the hell with this and started carrying a pistol on deliveries. A year later I was robbed again, this time at gunpoint. I cooperated giving up the money, my wallet and the pizza. When the guy started to leave, he took a shot at me, thankfully missing me and I returned fire, hitting his car several times. After finishing with the Police, I returned to the store, where I was promptly fired. Around a month later, I got a call from the Store Manager, offering me my job back. I found out that he was having problems filling his driver slots after another store in the District had been robbed and the Manager, Assistant Manager and two drivers were lead into the freezer and killed.
I have heard that you are safer in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, than you are delivering pizzas these days.
However, since this happened in Massachusetts, where no one less influential than Teddy Kennedy can get a permit to carry a gun, this is probably moot. Gun control law really doesn’t care if you die.
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