The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the family of a pizza maker and deliverman has the right to sue the pizza franchise known as Papa John’s. According to the Supreme Court justice who wrote the opinion in this case, the facts are “as tragic as they are bizarre.” Nineteen-year-old Michael Harris worked at a Papa John’s in Davenport and died after his supervisor punched him in the chest. That supervisor had sex with a female subordinate, and Harris — the dead man — had told another Papa John’s manager of the liaison. A district court dismissed the family’s case against Papa John’s, but the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled there should be a trial to determine whether Harris’ family can prove the “chest shot” that killed Harris was retaliation against Harris. The justices say it’s possible a jury would view the “chest shot” as “nothing more than a barbaric display of youthful machismo,” but the court says a “more sinister interpretation could be made.”
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