Motion filed to return Hotel 71 lawsuit to county court

4-Nov-13 – The attorney for the Air India pilot who is suing the current owner of the former Hotel 71 is trying to get the case sent back to Cook County’s Circuit Court.

That is where the case started but on October 8, the defendants, Hospitality Properties Trust and Wyndham Hotel Management, Inc., got the case moved to U.S. District Court. They argued it was a federal case due to the plaintiff, Pankul Mathur, being a citizen of India and suing for more than $75,000.

Now, Mathur’s attorney, Sanjay Shivpuri, has filed a motion to remand the case back to Circuit Court. He says the defendants moved the case too late, well past a 30-day deadline from when they were served on August 6.

Mathur (right) claims that on April 15 during a layover in Chicago, a large African-American woman came to his door, pushed her way into his room, and robbed him.

Over the next six minutes, his pleas for help, he says, were met with indifference from hotel staff, including security personnel, and Mathur suspects an employee of the hotel was an accomplice.

The woman allegedly told a housekeeper that she was taking the money to cover her fee as a prostitute.

In his motion presented to the Honorable Sharon Johnson Coleman on October 31, Shivpuri (left) calls the incident “a planned assault and robbery.” The defendants have until November 12 to respond to the motion.

$400k settlement offer declined

On June 10, 2013, two days before the hotel re-opened as the Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront, Shivpuri wrote to the general manager and two attorneys for Hotel 71, offering a $400,000 settlement.

“Please note the potential for this story to become viral,” warned Shivpuri, “and the negative publicity which will result from the public learning that employees assist intruders in Hotel 71, that assailants in Hotel 71 claim to be prostitutes to intimidate guests into not reporting crimes, that Hotel 71’s security is impotent, and that Hotel 71 cannot care for international airline crews during their layovers.”

 Related story: Lawsuit over alleged robbery at Hotel 71 now in federal court