FAMILY MISTAKENLY ACCUSED OF DINE-AND-DASH, SUES

Last year, Peter and Ann McGirr took their two adult children for a meal at The Horse and Jockey pub, a restaurant in Tideswell, England. They paid $200 (£150) for the dinner and left. But soon afterwards, management at the pub falsely believed the family had pulled a dine-and-dash and promptly took to social media to call them out and shame them. The pub owner posted pictures of the family enjoying steak dinners and several beers and wrote that they had not paid. However, an investigation revealed that the mistake was due to an inexperienced staff member who neglected to ring up the payment in the till. The owner apologized and offered the family a free dinner. Nope. The McGirr family sued claiming bad press affected the reputation of their family-named business, McGirr Engineering. They won, and the court ordered the restaurant to pay $98,000 (£75,000) in damages as well as the family’s $52,000 (£40,000) legal costs.
* The family ate steak, the owner ate crow.
* This is outrageous. How can four people go out to a steak dinner these days and only pay $200?