Major Franchise Owner Hit with $30.7M Jury Verdict

A case hinging on an alleged oral promise for compensation was recently decided in favor of a retired employee who alleged he had been defrauded by his former boss, who owned about 150 Popeyes restaurants across Texas, Oklahoma and Florida.

The panel of six Dallas County jurors heard eight days of testimony and deliberated for two hours before deciding Jerry “Scott” Stockton wasn’t lying when he told them his former employer, Guillermo Perales and his company Sun Holdings, had promised to pay him 5 percent of the annual operating profits of the restaurants he helped oversee. Stockton was awarded about $15.6 million in compensatory damages and $15.1 million in punitive damages.