ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
16 YEARS AND several lawsuits after Denis O'Brien balked at a $5 restaurant bill, a judge ruled that his bill comes to $6,000. And that doesn't include a tip.
Sixteen years after the start of a legal imbroglio over a $5 restaurant tab, the bitter and expensive court fight between Denis O'Brien and the Mousetrap restaurant is over.
O'Brien said he was walking away from the matter in which he has acted as his own attorney. A judge ordered him to pay $6,000 for filing what the court called frivolous claims against one of the Mousetrap's lawyers.
``One of my rules of thumb is that I don't gamble with other people's money,'' O'Brien said. O'Brien said he would have to borrow to pay the fine and extra costs for an appeal.
Edward B. Lowry, the attorney who defended the now-defunct Mousetrap restaurant, said Tuesday that his clients were ``euphoric.''
O'Brien was a University of Virginia graduate student when he entered the off-campus restaurant Feb. 20, 1980. He was given a red ticket the restaurant used to keep track of patrons' purchases.
O'Brien, who purchased nothing, lost the ticket and refused to pay the $5 fee for the lost ticket.
O'Brien argued about the policy and dared the restaurant's manager to call police. The manager did. Police took O'Brien to a city magistrate, but the magistrate refused to file charges against him.
In September 1980, O'Brien sued the restaurant, the owner and the manager for false arrest and malicious prosecution. He lost the lawsuits and thought the matter was over.
But the restaurant, owner and manager countersued. O'Brien had left Charlottesville and was in Massachusetts, studying at Harvard. He did not learn of the lawsuits until after a Charlottesville jury found he had defamed the owner and the manager by posting fliers around town complaining of the red ticket policy.
The owner and manager were awarded $64,800, which O'Brien did not pay.
During the 1980s, actions were filed in Massachusetts and in O'Brien's other home, New Zealand, in an attempt to make him pay. All the while, the interest on the $64,800 award was growing.
By 1991, the total had reached $156,000. That year, the High Court of New Zealand refused to uphold the judgment.
Shortly thereafter, O'Brien returned to the United States. The owner and the manager again tried to collect, but the effort ended in 1994 when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the judgment was invalid because O'Brien was not given proper notice of the proceedings against him.
The end came April 30 when Charlottesville Circuit Judge Joseph F. Spinella ruled that O'Brien has twice sued John C. Lowe for no good reason and ordered O'Brien to pay the lawyer for his time.
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