It's not a 30-minute guarantee, exactly, but Domino's wants us to remember the golden days. The problem with the old guarantee was a legal one: Domino's was worried about being held liable for accidents caused by its or its franchisees' delivery people.

Of course, the franchising context raises an interesting issue of agency law because franchisors generally are not vicariously liable for the acts of their franchisee's employees, even though franchisors exert substantial control over their franchisees. I once taught a case on Domino's in Business Organizations called Parker v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 629 So.2d 1026 (Fla. App. 1993). The case arose from an automobile accident in which the franchisee's delivery person was accused of "operat[ing] a vehicle in a reckless, negligent and careless manner, causing it to strike another vehicle." The plaintiff's were pedestrians who were struck by a third vehicle that hit them while they were helping the victims of the initial accident. The key issue in the case was whether Domino's should be vicariously liable under agency law, and this issue turned on the level of control exercised by Domino's.

The court read the franchise agreement and operating manual, and found control provisions all over the place:

The manual which Domino's provides to its franchisees is a veritable bible for overseeing a Domino's operation. It contains prescriptions for every conceivable facet of the business: from the elements of preparing the perfect pizza to maintaining accurate books; from advertising and promotional ideas to routing and delivery guidelines; from order-taking instructions to oven-tending rules; from organization to sanitation.

Obviously, most franchise guidelines have nothing to do with a delivery accident (and the law here is muddy enough that it's not clear whether that matters!). The court also mentions the 30-minute delivery policy, though more in passing than as a crucial fact. In any event, the court concluded, "The manual literally leaves nothing to chance," and this leads to "the self-evident conclusion that it was error to determine as a matter of law that Domino's does not retain the right to control the means to be used by its franchisee to accomplish the required tasks."

Well, it doesn't seem so self-evident to me, but that sort of reasoning was enough for Domino's. According to the W$J, "After abandoning the guarantee in the wake of the St. Louis lawsuit, Domino's began playing up the taste and quality of the pizzas themselves."

Hmm. The taste and quality of Domino's pizzas?

No wonder they are going back to the 30-minute delivery policy.

Agency Law, Marketing

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