WILKES-BARRE
- Domino's Pizza will be delivering to a local couple - in
a big way. It won't be pizza or Buffalo wings, either. It
will be cash, $400,000 worth, which is the amount reached
in a settlement stemming from a lawsuit the couple filed against
the franchise.
After
a nine-year legal battle, Dolores A. and Charles Marcinko,
of RR 2, Sugarloaf, agreed to take the money as compensation
for injuries Dolores Marcinko received when her car was struck
by another vehicle being operated by a Domino's deliveryman.
Their
legal argument centered on whether the Domino's driver was
racing to fulfill a delivery guarantee that the company has
since abandoned.
The
accident happened nearly 11 years ago, on Oct. 29, 1984. It
occurred at Wyoming Street and Diamond Avenue and involved
Domino's driver Richard E. Strouse of Orangeville, Columbia
County. He was working for the pizza maker's outlet at the
corner of 15th and Church streets in Hazleton, though the
local store was not a defendant in the case. The lawsuit was
filed against Domino's Inc.
According
to court documents, Dolores Marcinko was moving south on Wyoming
Street as she approached a green light on Diamond Avenue.
At the the same time, Strouse was moving west on Diamond and
approaching a red light, which he "drove through . .
. and forcibly and violently collided with" Marcinko's
car.
As
a result of the crash, Marcinko suffered numerous injuries
to her back and other parts of her body. Among her specific
injuries were two herniated discs.
A
lawsuit was filed two years later, and after various delays
and changes of legal counsel, it was concluded several weeks
ago. Through an agreement reached between the two sides, the
amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
But
legal sources familiar with the case who spoke on condition
of anonymity said the final settlement was $400,000, reached
after years of legal haggling with Domino's, which denied
blame.
The
case, brought to conclusion by attorney Robert J. Powell of
West Hazleton, focused on whether the crash was caused by
the Domino's driver hurrying to fulfill the company's guarantee
of delivery within 30 minutes. The company provided at that
time a $3 refund to customers who didn't get their pizzas
within a half-hour.
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According
to the legal sources, Powell was prepared to bring a number
of documents, including pages from the book Pizza Tiger, the
autobiography of Domino's founder Tom Monaghan, to show that
the crash was caused through the company's obsession with fulfilling
the 30-minute guarantee.
Neither
Powell nor the Marcinkos, citing a confidentiality clause included
as part of the settlement, would discuss the case with a reporter.
Domino's franchise officials did not return a request for comment.
But papers filed in the case showed that Domino's staunchly
resisted claims that the 30-minute guarantee led to the crash.
In
one filing, in which Powell sought information concerning the
delivery policy, domino's responded that the information was
"neither material nor relevant to the case at hand."
Powell
responded in a subsequent brief that Domino's was trying to
"thwart, delay, stall and hinder" a probe into the
company's policy regarding the delivery guarantee.
As
part of a request for information that Powell made, he sought
instructional tapes for Domino's delivery personnel made by
famed race car driver Jackie Stewart, who instructed the employees
on driving techniques.
Over
the years since the lawsuit was filed, Domino's, under public
and legal pressure in numerous other lawsuits, dropped the 30-minute
delivery guarantee.
The
other lawsuits brought the conclusion that the guarantee was
relevant to the cases brought against Domino's. In one case,
filed in Nevada by a woman, documents regarding the guarantee
were found by a judicial discovery master to be central to that
case.
In
a brief filed earlier this year, Powell cited several other
cases in which Domino's was forced to produce documents regarding
its delivery guarantee.
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