Owners of Newport Restaurants Facing Fed Suit Say They Kept Tips While Serving and Bartending

Owners of Newport Restaurants Facing Fed Suit Say They Kept Tips While Serving and Bartending

The owners of one of the top restaurant groups in Newport are accused of keeping tips according to a lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Labor -- now, they have responded to the allegations. 

As part of their defense, they admitted they did keep tips while serving and bartending in the establishments they owned.

On Friday, attorney William O’ Gara representing Stoneacre Brasserie, Stoneacre Garden, and Stoneacre Tapas owners Christopher Bender and David Crowell filed a response to the initial lawsuit in August 2022.

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United States Labor Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh had charged Bender and Crowell of including themselves in the restaurants’ tip-sharing pools in violation of federal law -- and other allegations.  

The response comes after the group repeatedly delayed its response in the months following the filing of the suit. Part of the delay was one of the owners was busy with a wedding.

As GoLocal was first to report when the lawsuit was first filed, the U.S. Labor Department charged that the defendants “failed to pay their employees the federal minimum wage and required overtime, kept employees’ tips, misclassified employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements, and failed to maintain accurate employment-related records, all in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

According to the 25-page complaint, the time period the alleged violations occurred was between April 2016 and January 2021. 
 

 

Material Responses

The Department of Labor alleged that “as an owner, Defendant Crowell participated in the tip pools at Stoneacre Brasserie and Stoneacre Tapas, from which Crowell received tips.”

The response filed by O’Gara states the following:

“Defendant Crowell denies the allegations in this paragraph insofar as they state or imply that he participated in tip pools in his capacity as an owner. Defendant Crowell admits he participated in tip pools while serving customers as a server or bartender,” wrote O’Gara in the response. “However, further answering, insofar as the allegations in this paragraph state or imply that Defendant Crowell is liable to Plaintiff as alleged in Plaintiff’s complaint, Defendant Crowell denies such allegations.”

The U.S. Department of Labor also alleged that “Defendant Crowell’s primary duty was to manage these restaurants” — a claim which he also partly denied.

“Defendant Crowell lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of these allegations because they are not limited to any specific time period,” wrote O'Gara. “Further answering, insofar as these allegations relate to a time period when Defendant Crowell’s primary duty was to act as a server or bartender, denied."

O’Gara also said in his filing that Bender is an owner — and that he only participated in the tips pool “while serving customers as a server or bartender.”

He clarified that Bender was not an owner of Stoneacre Tapas, which closed in 2018.

In the response, O’Gara goes on to allege that the federal government’s complaint “fails to allege the requisite showing needed for the imposition of liquidated damages — and that the federal government “failed to demonstrate that any of the Defendants acted willfully in violation of the law.”

This case continues in federal court.