Law Humor

Opinions vary about how much you should tip hotel employees, but in this situation, there is general agreement that it should be zero dollars.

A Los Angeles woman is suing the Hyatt hotel chain, alleging that she returned to her room at a Hyatt in Deerfield, Illinois, to find a male Hyatt employee wearing some of her clothes. According to the report, Dayanara Fernandez alleges that the man was wearing a Hyatt shirt along with one of her skirts and a pair of her high heels, and, most creepily, her underwear. "After changing his clothes," the report continues, the man handed her various items of clothing, including several pairs of her underwear," which she presumably burned immediately.

Fernandez called the front desk (and that's a conversation I would like to have heard), and they called police. The report cites Lake County court records showing that the man later pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge and was fined $187.

Fernandez's attorney was quoted as saying that she had tried to settle the claim, but that Hyatt was unwilling to acknowledge her client's emotional distress. The complaint alleges claims for emotional distress; invasion of privacy; and negligent hiring, supervision and/or training, a claim that I suppose means this case could set a precedent requiring hotel chains to train their employees not to wear guests' underpants.

I'm sure that, somewhere, a consultant stands ready to advise them as to just how they might do that.