A catering company that has provided services to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among other high-end clients in Chicago, has dropped its defamation claims against one of its bartenders, prompting the bartender and his attorney to chide the company for a “bad faith attempt” to frighten the bartender into silence.
On July 23, Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell signed off on the request from plaintiff Jewell Events Catering to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit against Bryan Wendorf.
Jewell Events, known officially as Wood Enterprises Inc., had filed suit in May against Wendorf, accusing him of defaming the company and violating an employee confidentiality agreement. Jewell Events asserted Wendorf violated the confidentiality agreement by posting information online disclosing that Jewell was a food service provider for the CSO.
And they asserted he had defamed them by publishing statements intimating Jewell may have violated Illinois law by allegedly not paying its workers wages they would otherwise be due, after closing down its catering operations following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wendorf further allegedly announced he and others were filing complaints against Jewell with state regulators.
In the May lawsuit, Jewell asserted Wendorf’s comments had played a role in prompting the CSO to inquire with Jewell regarding the status of its payroll.
Just a little more than two months later, however, Jewell withdrew its lawsuit.
In an email to the Cook County Record, Wendorf said: “The suit was always a frivolous tactic intended to scare me. I don't scare easily.”
That was followed by a statement from Wendorf’s attorney Ari Cohn, who said:
“This lawsuit was nothing more than a bad faith attempt to scare Mr. Wendorf into silencing himself because his former employer did not appreciate being publicly criticized for its actions.
“Meritless lawsuits such as this are an affront to the First Amendment and the rights of employees to speak out against mistreatment. They highlight the need for stronger anti-SLAPP laws to discourage frivolous litigation that aims to bully people into silence through the threat of excessive legal fees.
“This lawsuit should never have been filed, and I am glad that Mr. Wendorf can now put this matter behind him.”
Jewell Events had been represented in the action by attorneys Jerome F. Crotty, Kevin P. Brown and Bernard A. Henry, of the firm of Rieck & Crotty P.C., of Chicago.