Judge Rejects Denny’s Bid to Dismiss Suit : Courts: Company said legal action would interfere with consent decree between it and U.S. Justice Department. Jurist consolidates the accord and the lawsuit.

A judge on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Denny’s that adds to the growing list of racial discrimination allegations made by customers of the national restaurant chain.

U.S District Judge James Ware reached his decision one day after the parent company of Denny’s promised to generate $1 billion in minority business opportunities over seven years.

Ware ruled against the company, which sought to dismiss the suit on the grounds that it might get in the way of an agreement reached in April between the U.S. Justice Department and Denny’s. Among other things, the agreement, known as a consent decree, called for Denny’s to conduct in-house tests to make sure employees do not discriminate against black patrons.

Attorney Tom Pfister, representing Denny’s, said the suit should be dismissed to avoid interfering with the April agreement, reached after an initial class-action lawsuit was filed by 32 Denny’s patrons in California.

Ware decided to consolidate the suit and the agreement to facilitate court proceedings. He told both sides to return March 11 to determine if the plaintiffs are representative of a specific class for the purpose of a class-action suit.

The suit was triggered by an 1991 San Jose incident in which a Denny’s manager demanded that a group of black students pay a cover charge to be seated and that they pay for their meals in advance.

Attorney Mari Mayeda, representing the students, submitted to Ware a three-inch stack of exhibits that alleged new incidents of racial discrimination.

They included an affidavit from Doris Pickford, mother of New York Jets defensive back Eric Thomas. Pickford said that in May she was required to wait at a Sacramento Denny’s while white customers who arrived after her were seated first.

Another document came from Veola Hoyt, assistant to the Dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston. She is married to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, who sits on the bench in Houston.

The couple were ignored for nearly to an hour at a Denny’s while white youths who used racial slurs were served, the document said.

Attorney Barry Goldstein, Mayeda’s partner, said the plaintiffs in the California suit will seek monetary damages but he would not give a specific figure.

On Thursday in Baltimore, Flagstar Corp., Denny’s parent company, signed an agreement with the NAACP. It pledged a minority recruitment and training program to add 325 management positions by the year 2000 and create 53 black-owned franchises by 1997.

Among other things, 12% of the Spartanburg, S.C., corporation’s $800 million in food, paper and supplies would be purchased from black-owned firms, under the pact.

Six black Secret Service officers sued Denny’s in May, saying that the chain’s restaurant in Annapolis, Md., violated their civil rights by serving white customers more quickly. In addition to the California case, other complaints surfaced in North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida.