The fellow bartender who accompanied former "General Hospital" actor Johnny Wactor the night he was shot to death as thieves tried to steal his car's catalytic converter must arbitrate her claims that the downtown bar/restaurant where they worked failed to provide her a safe place to work and park, the establishment's attorneys contend in new court papers.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the owners of the Level 8 bar on Figueroa Street. Doe, who seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, also maintains that the bar owners never offered condolences to Wactor's family or inquired how she was doing, but instead partied at the establishment the next night while the remaining staff waited on them until closing time.
The suit identifies Level 8's owners as Mark and Jonathan Houston, but the suit was filed against their two companies, Level 8 Fig LLC and DTLA Hospitality LLC. On Friday, lawyers for both entities filed court papers with Judge Randolph M. Hammock stating that when Doe was hired in July 2023 she agreed in writing to take any individual labor claims she might have before an arbitrator rather than a jury.
"Plaintiff entered the arbitration agreement wherein she agreed to arbitrate any claims or controversies arising out of her employment with defendants," according to the defense attorneys' court papers.
The arbitration agreement calls for a neutral arbitrator, is not unfairly weighted toward the defendants and allows for a possible written award to the plaintiff, according to the defense attorneys' filings.
In her lawsuit originally filed May 27 and amended on Aug. 26, Doe's allegations include wrongful constructive termination, breach of oral contract, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and deceit, and several state Labor Code violations. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well a penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act. PAGA is a California law that allows employees to sue employers on behalf of the state for violations of the Labor Code.
Doe says she was selected for the Level 8 bartending job from among thousands of applicants. About a week after being offered safe parking at the nearby Circa apartment building, she and other employees were told to park in a public facility or on the street, the suit states.
Not long after Level 8 opened in September 2023, a young employee was mugged while walking to her car after a shift, according to the lawsuit. By May 2024, when Doe left her job at Level 8, she had spent $3,000 of her own money on parking and was never reimbursed, the suit states.
After the mugging, management recommended employees begin a buddy system when walking to their cars after work, but didn't advise on how it should be implemented, according to the lawsuit.
"Employees were apparently expected to figure out their own safety measures," the suit states while also noting that the mugging victim quit.
After Level 8 management told Doe and other employees that the bar owners were "coming down on them" for repeatedly raising concerns about parking, the plaintiff and her colleagues feared retaliation, and Doe did her best to take her own precautions, the suit states, adding that Doe believes the Level 8 owners breached an oral contract and committed fraud by not providing employees with safe parking.
Wactor, 37, was shot about 3:30 a.m. on May 25, 2024, while walking with Doe toward his parked car near Hope Street and Pico Boulevard. Of the four men arrested in connection with Wactor's killing, two have been sentenced for lesser crimes while two others await trial on murder and other charges.
Wactor appeared on nearly 200 episodes of "General Hospital" from 2020-22. His other credits included "Westworld," "The OA," "NCIS," "Station 19," "Criminal Minds" and "Hollywood Girl."
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok