A Missouri woman who claimed a Chuck E. Cheese mascot groped her breast has settled her lawsuit against the operator of the restaurant chain, On Point has learned.

Jennifer Sorbello's case raised some novel issues of employer liability for an employee's misconduct toward a customer. She alleged in a complaint filed last year that William Thigpen “touched and groped [her] breast with his hand” while performing as the Chuck E. Cheese mascot at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in St. Louis.

“Greeting patrons ... while costumed and disguised as 'Chuck E. Cheese' was a task within the course and scope of Thigpen's employment,” the suit said, and Thigpen was “engaged in such duty” when he allegedly groped Sorbello.

The restaurant's operator, CEC Entertainment (NYSE: CEC), could have argued the alleged groping was not foreseeable. But court records show its attorney filed settlement papers June 24 and the case will be formally dismissed next month.

Sorbello was seeking unspecified damages for discrimination in a place of public accommodation, assault, and battery. On June 18, a judge denied CEC's motion to exclude evidence of a prior complaint that a Chuck E. Cheese employee made about Thigpen.

“Defendants cannot be put on notice of the possibility of Thigpen's alleged improper action [toward Sorbello] by a dissimilar prior instance,” CEC argued.

In settling the case, CEC might have been influenced by the precedent of Clark v. Skaggs Companies, 724 S.W.2d 545 (1986), in which the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $20,000 award against the employer of a retail store security guard who squeezed a customer's breasts while searching her for stolen merchandise.

By Matthew Heller
7/6/10