A former longtime manager for Stonefire Grill Inc. has tentatively settled his lawsuit in which he alleged that he was wrongfully laid off in 2020 because he was 68 years old.
Plaintiff Richard Yalem is now 72 years old and his Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from Stonefire Grill and Goode Partners LLC, which has a majority stake in the eatery known for its grilled entrees, pizzas and salads.
On Wednesday, Yalem’s lawyers filed court papers with Judge Valerie Salkin notifying her of a “conditional” resolution in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by June 16.
No terms were divulged.
In their earlier court papers, restaurant attorneys denied Yalem’s allegations and said he lost his job due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yalem was hired in early 2003 as a lower level employee and was promoted often, achieving various management positions that culminated with the title of outbound catering sales manager when he was laid off, according to the suit filed in August 2022.
Stonefire Grill was founded and owned until 2016 by sisters Mary and Maureen Harrigan and Yalem was one of an original group of seven employees who helped the chain grow beyond its first restaurant in Valencia to 14 locations, the suit stated. Yalem briefly left in 2008 to work for the Cheesecake Factory, but Mary Harrigan convinced him to return in February 2010, the suit stated.
Throughout his lengthy career with Stonefire, Yalem served and excelled in a broad range of different managerial roles with the company, according to the suit, which further stated that he eventually became the face of the restaurant in his home community, where he was affectionately known around town as “Mr. Stonefire.”
But during the later years of his employment, Yalem was subjected “to a persistent pattern and practice of harassment and discrimination based on his age” that included age-based comments in front of his colleagues and superiors as not being considered for promotions to positions for which he was qualified, according to the suit.
For more than a decade, Stonefire Grill “cultivated and fostered an ageist corporate culture that prioritized the hiring, training and promotion of youthful employees under the age of 40 at the expense of older employees with more seniority with the company,” the suit alleged.
New York-based equity firm Goode Partners LLC acquired a controlling interest in Stonefire Grill in 2016 and as the years went by, Yalem was subjected to “humiliating and demeaning harassment and discrimination based on his age,” the suit alleged.
During a charity event in Hollywood called “Hilarity for Charity,” at which Stonefire Grill donated pizzas, Yalem was chosen by the company to perform a skit on stage with actor and comedian Seth Rogan, but the company’s director of marketing told him just before the event began that he was being replaced because “we want a younger person to be the face of Stonefire,” the suit stated.
Yalem believes the woman who replaced him in the skit was in her 20s.
Yalem and his older colleagues also were passed over for promotions and training opportunities that were given instead to younger employees with less experience, the suit stated.
Yalem was furloughed in March 2020 during the beginning of the pandemic, even though marketing assistants in their 20s who reported to him and his older colleagues continued to work, the suit stated.
Yalem and the rest of his team were laid off in July 2020 and the plaintiff was told it had “nothing to do with you or your performance,” the suit stated.