PR
Newswire
February 24, 1992, Monday
SECTION: Financial
News
DISTRIBUTION: TO BUSINESS EDITOR
LENGTH: 293
words
HEADLINE: BENIHANA NATIONAL SUES PLAINTIFFS IN SETTLED STRIKE
SUIT
DATELINE: MIAMI, Feb. 24
BODY:
Benihana National
Corporation (NASDAQ: BNHN) today announced it has
filed suit against four
individuals who "have attempted to defame
Benihana
National."
BNC filed a two-count complaint against Manuel Asensio, Thomas
R. Dilk,
Gregory Baxter and Joseph Inloes, the named plaintiffs in a strike
suit
which had been
filed in 1989 against the company, its principal officers
and directors and
which was recently dismissed in the Circuit Court of
the 17th Judicial
Circuit in and for Broward County, Fla. In entering
final judgment,
which dismissed the strike suit, Judge Patti Englander
Henning noted that
Asensio's testimony against the settlement was "not
worthy of belief,"
and stated that Asensio had "a hidden agenda."
On Jan. 14, 1992, Judge Henning denied a motion for rehearing on the
judgment, making the judgment final in the Circuit Court.
Facing
frustrating failures in court, the defendants attempted to
discredit
Benihana National and to damage and embarrass its officers
and directors, according to BNC. The complaint filed by the company
outlines the "numerous false and defamatory statements made by Asensio
and the other defendants" which form the basis of this
action.
Benihana National also noted that the attorney who filed the
complaint
withdrew from the representation of the strike suit plaintiffs, a
second
attorney was purportedly fired, and a third attorney has filed a motion
to withdraw which was recently granted by the court.
"We believe the
defendants have been on a personal campaign to hurt the
company," said BNC
President Joel Schwartz. "There is a price to pay for
that type of behavior and we intend for them to pay it," he added.
CONTACT: Joel Schwartz, president of BNC,
305-593-0770