Restaurant Sues Dex Media For Making It Butt Of Leno Joke

It’s less than advantageous for a restaurant to be grouped with animal carcass removal companies. A Montana eatery suffered such an indignity two years ago in online and printed listings by by Dex Media, suffering a heavy hit to its reputation, even ending up as fodder for Jay Leno on his Headlines segment. The restaurant owner has sued for, among other charges, negligence, defamation and slander, and wants Dex to compensate the business for the money it spent building up the brand, as well as a TV commercial to set the record straight.

The AP reports Dex says the listing was an error and fixed it online while vowing to do the same in future phone books. The restaurant owner, who says in the lawsuit that a Dex employee stuck his company with the listing as retribution for his refusal to buy an ad in the phone book, said he asked Dex for a $417,000 settlement but received no response.

In its response to the suit, Dex says it’s not responsible for the actions of the employee who placed the restaurant under the animal carcass removal listing because he operated outside the scope of his job. Dex also says that since someone from the restaurant berated the employee in question, it could have foreseen the backlash.

Bozeman restaurant sues over ‘Animal Carcass Removal’ listing [AP via Huffington Post]

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