Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics & Society

I used the word "melee" in the title because it is one of the words I saw journalists use to describe the melee/brawl/shootout/riot/gunfight/gang war that occurred at the Twin Peaks restaurant on I-35 in Waco, Texas. (For those of you non-Texans, Waco is equidistant from Dallas and Austin on I-35.) According to reports, two motorcycle gangs, the Bandidos and the Cossacks, were having a "meeting" there when a fight in the bathroom and/or in the parking lot spread into the restaurant, the patio area, and the parking lot, resulting in the deaths of 9 people and in injuries to 18 more. (Some reports give an account of a coalition meeting with up to five gangs represented.) Around 170 bikers have been arrested. None of the diners, employees, bystanders or police officers were among the injured or killed. A lof ot folks on social media are talking about interesting civil rights and criminal aspects of the case, but there is also a fascinating corporate/contracts aspect to the case.

Twin Peaks is (according to Google maps) a "sports pub with scantily clad waitresses," but more important to this post, a franchise. (Apparently, after doing some research, I've discovered that the word for this type of establishment is "breastaurant." Nice.) According to Entrepreneur.com, in 2014 there were 34 TP restaurants, and 20 were company-owned. Franchises are not cheap ($50k/year) and require a substantial outlay and proof of liquidity ($1.5 million a store net worth and $500k liquidity), but TP franchises seem to have a good reputation online for being a good buy. Until possibly this week.

Last semester, Gordon and I (and Matt Jennejohn and Clark Asay) taught a colloquium on Law & Entrepreneurship. One of our fantastic students wrote her paper on the reputational hits a franchisee takes when a rogue franchisee damages the brand. Examples she gave were mostly of health, safety and labor problems, such as when the franchisee down the street gets bad publicity from having a horribly filthy restaurant. My read of the problem was that the franchisor, particularly when the franchisor owns many of the stores itself, has a strong incentive to monitor all franchisees and contract for control and/or damages to mitigate the possibility of brand-damage. I believe we are seeing this played out in the TP case.

Shortly after the shoot-out (a strangely mild phrase, evoking thoughts of a Six Flags theme park ride), TP revoked the franchise from the Waco establishment, widely publicizing the decision and distancing the brand from the actions of the Waco restaurant management. Why is any of this the fault of TP-Waco? According to Waco police, TP-Waco had been warned about hosting the biker "meetings" and encouraging well-known organized criminal gangs from hanging out there. I have not seen any identification of the owner(s) of TP-Waco and do not know if there are any familial or business connections between the owner(s) and a motorcycle gang, so the incentive of TP-Waco to encourage biker clientele is unclear. In fact, the Waco police contacted TP (national) and advised them of the situation, and TP (national) contacted TP-Waco. According to TP (national), it had no power to physically close TP-Waco on the day of the meeting, cancel the "patio reservation," or change any of its decisions. Its remedy was to revoke the franchise after the fact. Now, TP (national) says it is revising its franchise agreements to give it more power to act earlier -- I would love to see a copy of the new franchise agreement!

Anyway, our student's paper highlighted this very concern. Now, other TP franchisees surely will see lost business as patrons will associate the brand with violence or at least an unsavory biker culture. Not only did something awful happen there, but the management is being painted in the media as being an active participant. TP-Dallas has already sent out a press release trying to mitigate brand-damage, focusing on the fact that no patrons or bystanders were hurt. So, if TP-Dallas loses business, what can it do? I've looked everywhere to see if business interruption insurance covers this, and I can't find an insurance product for this type of loss. However, I have found evidence that franchisees often sue franchisors for a number of things, including "errors and omissions" in the franchise disclosure documents. The disclosure documents aren't public, but the TP website does stress that franchises are only given to a select few candidates who are very qualified. While criminal law types monitor the ongoing investigation, the boring corporate types will monitor the franchise situation!

Crime and Criminal Law, Franchising, Torts | Bookmark

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I used the word "melee" in the title because it is one of the words I saw journalists use to describe the melee/brawl/shootout/riot/gunfight/gang war that occurred at the Twin Peaks restaurant on I-35 in Waco, Texas. (For those of you non-Texans, Waco is equidistant from Dallas and Austin on I-35.) According to reports, two motorcycle gangs, the Bandidos and the Cossacks, were having a "meeting" there when a fight in the bathroom and/or in the parking lot spread into the restaurant, the patio area, and the parking lot, resulting in the deaths of 9 people and in injuries to 18 more. (Some reports give an account of a coalition meeting with up to five gangs represented.) Around 170 bikers have been arrested. None of the diners, employees, bystanders or police officers were among the injured or killed. A lof ot folks on social media are talking about interesting civil rights and criminal aspects of the case, but there is also a fascinating corporate/contracts aspect to the case.

Twin Peaks is (according to Google maps) a "sports pub with scantily clad waitresses," but more important to this post, a franchise. (Apparently, after doing some research, I've discovered that the word for this type of establishment is "breastaurant." Nice.) According to Entrepreneur.com, in 2014 there were 34 TP restaurants, and 20 were company-owned. Franchises are not cheap ($50k/year) and require a substantial outlay and proof of liquidity ($1.5 million a store net worth and $500k liquidity), but TP franchises seem to have a good reputation online for being a good buy. Until possibly this week.

Last semester, Gordon and I (and Matt Jennejohn and Clark Asay) taught a colloquium on Law & Entrepreneurship. One of our fantastic students wrote her paper on the reputational hits a franchisee takes when a rogue franchisee damages the brand. Examples she gave were mostly of health, safety and labor problems, such as when the franchisee down the street gets bad publicity from having a horribly filthy restaurant. My read of the problem was that the franchisor, particularly when the franchisor owns many of the stores itself, has a strong incentive to monitor all franchisees and contract for control and/or damages to mitigate the possibility of brand-damage. I believe we are seeing this played out in the TP case.

Shortly after the shoot-out (a strangely mild phrase, evoking thoughts of a Six Flags theme park ride), TP revoked the franchise from the Waco establishment, widely publicizing the decision and distancing the brand from the actions of the Waco restaurant management. Why is any of this the fault of TP-Waco? According to Waco police, TP-Waco had been warned about hosting the biker "meetings" and encouraging well-known organized criminal gangs from hanging out there. I have not seen any identification of the owner(s) of TP-Waco and do not know if there are any familial or business connections between the owner(s) and a motorcycle gang, so the incentive of TP-Waco to encourage biker clientele is unclear. In fact, the Waco police contacted TP (national) and advised them of the situation, and TP (national) contacted TP-Waco. According to TP (national), it had no power to physically close TP-Waco on the day of the meeting, cancel the "patio reservation," or change any of its decisions. Its remedy was to revoke the franchise after the fact. Now, TP (national) says it is revising its franchise agreements to give it more power to act earlier -- I would love to see a copy of the new franchise agreement!

Anyway, our student's paper highlighted this very concern. Now, other TP franchisees surely will see lost business as patrons will associate the brand with violence or at least an unsavory biker culture. Not only did something awful happen there, but the management is being painted in the media as being an active participant. TP-Dallas has already sent out a press release trying to mitigate brand-damage, focusing on the fact that no patrons or bystanders were hurt. So, if TP-Dallas loses business, what can it do? I've looked everywhere to see if business interruption insurance covers this, and I can't find an insurance product for this type of loss. However, I have found evidence that franchisees often sue franchisors for a number of things, including "errors and omissions" in the franchise disclosure documents. The disclosure documents aren't public, but the TP website does stress that franchises are only given to a select few candidates who are very qualified. While criminal law types monitor the ongoing investigation, the boring corporate types will monitor the franchise situation!

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