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Restaurant.com again dodges class action lawsuit 14-Jul-14 – A federal judge on Thursday granted a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit against an Arlington Heights, Illinois, company owned by two River North residents. The case against Restaurant.com had been argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court and a U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2010, two New Jersey residents sued RDC on behalf of themselves and others over gift certificates they purchased that had expiration dates and a disclaimer in violation of New Jersey law. RDC faced as much as $1 million in fines. The suit was dismissed, then appealed, and made it to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ruled the gift certificates were tangible property and therefore subject to the law RDC was accused of violating. But it was up to District Judge Joel Pisano to decide if that meant the ruling could be applied retroactively or to future cases only.
Pisano put an end to the four-year-old lawsuit, for now, saying it was clear to him that the New Jersey Supreme Court decision established a new rule of law and that applying it to old complaints “would create substantially inequitable results.” RDC, says the judge, “relied on a plausible, but incorrect, interpretation of the law.” Reached on July 17, plaintiff attorney Bruce Greenberg said an appeal has been filed. “We believe that the appellate court will reverse this ruling and permit the case to go forward,” said Greenberg. Dr. Kenneth Chessick, a lawyer in Chicago, and his wife, Ellen Chessick, who is president of Marina Towers Condominium Association, own Restaurant.com.
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