BLACK FRANCHISEES SUE BURGER KING IN CLASS ACTION [Archives,10/18/1988, THE WASINGTON POST]

Excerpt:  " When Burger King entered into that covenant [with PUSH],
                   they did it in bad faith", said Charles Jerome Ware, an attorney for the black franchisees.
                 " They [Burger King] violated it intentionally".
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            BLACK FRANCHISE OWNERS SUE BURGER KING CHAIN
                 by:  Malcolm Gladwell and Paul Farhi, October 18, 1988
                 THE WASHINGTON POST,www,washingtonpost.com
                                  archive/business/1988/10/18
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***** Several black Burger King franchise owners filed a $500,000,000.00 class-action
           lawsuit yesterday against the fast-food company, alleging that Burger King had
           tricked them into accepting inferior locations and had charged them more than twice
           as much as white-run franchisees for facilities and equipment.


           In a 55-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., 12 black
           Burger King operators from around the nation said the Miami-based hamburger chain had  a    acted "maliciously, deliberately and anti-competitively" during the past eight years and had
           driven many black Burger King owners out of business.


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           The lawsuit, which was brought in the franchisee owners' behalf by Attorney Charles Jerome Ware
            and his colleagues H. Russell Frisby and Franklin Lee on behalf of the Minority Business
           Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Washington-based law firm and business-
           advocacy group, represents a stinging rebuke of a much-publicized Burger King program
           designed to aid minority groups.


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        [ www.charlesjeromeware.com]