Eight former employees sue Halftime Sports for failure to pay wages

CHARLESTON -- Eight former employees are suing Halftime Sports and its owners in separate cases for failure to pay wages.

Jeff W. Johnson Jr., James Gore III, Michael Gray, Ricardo Stevens, Brent Seals, Anthony Bond, Clarence Burdette and James Blankenship worked for Halftime Sports as either cooks or dishwashers or both, according to the eight complaints filed Oct. 20 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Michael Hughes and Richard Rose are the owners of Halftime Sports.

The plaintiffs claim Halftime Sports failed to timely pay them for wages for two pay periods, from Aug. 3 to Aug. 16 and Aug. 17 to Aug. 26, 2009.

According to the suit, the company's actions were willful, wanton, and/or undertaken with reckless disregard and/or reckless indifference to their rights.

The former employees are suing for punitive damages for counts of violation of the Wage Payment and Collection Act and fraud. They are all being represented by Todd S. Bailess of Bailess Law.

Johnson and Burdette's cases have been assigned to Circuit Judge James C. Stucky, Gore's case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Charles E. King, Gray's case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tod J. Kaufman, Stevens and Bond's cases have been assigned to Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib Jr., Seals' case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey and Blankenship's case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Louis Bloom.

Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers: 09-C-1966, 09-C-1967, 09-C-1968, 09-C-1969, 09-C-1970, 09-C-1971, 09-C-1972 and 09-C-1973