After serving customers for several years in Santa Maria, Coco’s Restaurant Bakery on Broadway closed down suddenly on April 30.
The restaurant in Santa Maria was part of a massive closure of at least 70 stores across California, Nevada, and Arizona after the chain was acquired by its new owners, Texas-based Food Management Partners, on March 31.
In a federal class-action lawsuit filed on April 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, former employees allege that the past and present owners failed to give them advanced notice before closing the restaurants and failed to provide employees 60 days of wages and benefits.
The plaintiffs in the case are listed as Roseanne Barnett, Gary Bowles, Onesimo Cantoran, Sabino Gonzales, Adriana Macias, Marcos Miranda, Angel Ortiz, Maria Ramirez, and Violeta Ramirez. All of them reside in Orange or Los Angeles counties, according to the lawsuit.
The Delaware-based Catalina Restaurant Group, also listed as a defendant in the case, is Coco’s former owner.
A previous federal class-action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Ronald Ross on April 8 against Food Management and Catalina alleges similar complaints, including failure to give advanced warning of termination.
This article appears in May 7-14, 2015.