Ty Warner, owner of the Santa Barbara’s Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore, among many others, was hit with a class-action lawsuit claim filed on behalf of 425 hotels employees who until March 20, 2020, worked at Santa Barbara’s iconic Biltmore. As of that date, all hotel employees were placed on indefinite furlough due to COVID, even though hotel managers reportedly notified Warner that the hotel was safe to operate again on May 1, 2020.
As furloughed employees — not working, but not laid off, either — their attorneys, Bruce Anticouni and Nicole Ricotta, argued that they have been effectively denied $6 million in compensation contractually due them as employees who were terminated through no fault of their own. The suit contends that Warner, who has contracted with the Four Seasons to manage the hotel, not the hotel chain, was responsible for steadfastly refusing to turn the lights back on.
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