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Old 09-18-2009, 08:12 PM
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Default Re: Law suit in the Papa Johns deal

After reading this article it sounds like they may have a case:

RUSSELL, Ky. -- "Show me the dough!"
That's the message from a Northeastern Kentucky family that's threatening to sue Papa John's Pizza in a dispute over a recent company contest.
"Papa John's Road Trip" was a nationwide contest that solicited people to help locate John Schnatter's 1971 Z-28 Camaro, a car he sold in 1983 to help save his father's bar.
Last month, Jeff Robinson of Flatwoods, Ky., came forward as the car's current owner and claimed the $250,000 prize. But, some of his neighbors claim they are the rightful winners because they first notified Papa John's about the car's location and its current owner.
Billie Slone told WLKY the Schnatters sold that car to her husband in 1983. She said he sold it off several years ago. When her son learned about the contest, she said the family began researching the history of their former car.
"My daughter got online to look at the specifics of the description of the car and, as it turned out, the car was purchased in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and my husband was working in Jeffersonville, Indiana, at the time," she said. "So we thought: 'wow, there's several coincidences here.'"
The Slones said a title search revealed their former car was, in fact, the car Schnatter wanted back.
"We knew who owned the car all along, even after my dad sold the car," said Erin Pope Slone.
Billie Slone said she contacted Papa John's with the information, believing her family had qualified to win the reward. Slone cites advertisements and a press release that promised the money to whomever could "reveal the car's whereabouts."
"We initiated contact with Papa John's and had conversations with them and told them everything we knew, and at that point believed we had fulfilled our obligation to win the $250,000."
Papa John's vice president of corporate communications said the Slones don't qualify for the reward because the contest rules clearly state the winner had to transfer the title to the company.
"They sold the car nine years before the contest came out, so there was no way they could qualify to be the winner," said Chris Sternberg.
Sternberg said the company has offered to pay the Slones $25,000 for helping locate the car.
"We feel we're going above and beyond," he said.
The Slones allege the company changed the rules mid-contest to exclude them from claiming the prize money. Sternberg said the only rule change increased the reward from $25,000 to $250,000.
Jeff Robinson told WLKY that when Billie Slone first approached him about the car, she didn't tell him about the contest, rather that she had located the car's original owner and he was willing to pay Robinson $125,000 for the car.
Robinson said Slone requested the car's Vehicle Identification Number, but he said he didn't give it to her, because he knew about the contest and was suspect of her motives. Robinson said a friend had e-mailed him about the contest prior to his encounter with Slone, and that after the encounter, he did his own research and learned the car had once belonged to Schnatter.
Slone denies lying to Robinson about the car. She said she asked him to split the reward money with her in light of the fact that she had notified Papa John's about the car's location and owner.
She said her family will sue Papa John's if the company doesn't give her family the $250,000 prize money.
"It's disappointing. It really is," said Sternberg. "Money makes people do strange things."
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