Domino’s Sued After Texas Deliveryman’s Death

Domino’s is being sued by the widow of a Texas employee who died a year after being robbed and beaten with a baseball bat by teens who lured the deliveryman to a vacant house.

The lawsuit alleges the company was negligent in failing to follow safety procedures and seeks “all damages” available under state law to Fred Rein’s widow, Jackie, plus exemplary and punitive damages. The suit filed July 11 in Tarrant County names as defendants the local franchise and national corporation, including Mark of Excellence Pizza Co., Domino’s Pizza and Domino’s Pizza Franchising, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

“The purpose of this lawsuit is to ensure that nothing this tragic ever happens to anybody else,” said attorney Geno Borchardt, who represents Jackie Rein.

Borchardt said the teens used a prepaid cell phone to place a phony order, and that Domino’s had never before delivered pizza to the vacant Fort Worth house. When Rein arrived with the pizzas that night in 2009, he was attacked and suffered brain damage. His death 14 months later was ruled a homicide.

Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre said the company does not comment on lawsuits but is saddened by the loss and sorry for Rein’s family.

The three teens were charged as juveniles, but the cases went to court before Rein died.

A boy who was 16 at the time and testified that he beat Rein with the baseball bat pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 40 years in a Texas Youth Commission facility. But the teen, who turned 18 this week, was ordered in March to be transferred to adult prison, where he must serve at least half of the 40-year sentence minus time spent in the youth facility.

Prosecutors did not charge the boy with murder after Rein died because state law required him to remain in the juvenile court system, where a murder conviction carries a maximum 40-year term and sentences are served concurrently, prosecutor Riley Shaw said. If tried and convicted as an adult, the teen would have faced up to life in prison.

The Texas Legislature passed a bill during the recent session that allows prosecutors to ask that a teen offender be tried as an adult, even if he or she has gone through the juvenile court system, if a victim injured in the same offense later dies, Riley said.

Two other teens, 15 and 16 at the time of Rein’s attack, also pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and were sentenced to five years in a youth facility.

Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Topics Lawsuits Texas