Pizza Hut Settles Suit Over Alleged Bias

In a precedent-setting case, Pizza Hut settled a lawsuit filed by African American family members who said they were harassed, threatened with a mop handle and taunted with racial slurs at a restaurant in 1995. The settlement follows a federal judge’s ruling last summer that companies can be held liable if their employees commit hate crimes. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but Pizza Hut admitted no wrongdoing. The company, which was owned by PepsiCo in 1995, is now owned by Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., a Louisville, Ky.-based company that also owns KFC and Taco Bell. The suit was filed last year on behalf of Mary Ann Burton and 16 family members from Illinois, Missouri and South Carolina who had gathered for a family dinner in July 1995 in Godfrey, Ill., a mostly white town north of St. Louis. In July, U.S. District Judge William Hart refused to dismiss the case, rejecting Pizza Hut’s contention that the state’s hate crimes law applies only to individuals. Pizza Hut has said it trains employees to treat customers and employees fairly and does not tolerate harassment.