Burger King Owners Sue Landlord Over Rats
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The owners of a Burger King franchise in Manhattan whose rat-infested restaurant was featured on a segment of the TV show “Inside Edition” have filed a lawsuit against their landlord for failing to prevent rodents from entering the eatery.
The store, located at 401 Fifth Ave. in a building that is a historic landmark, became infested with vermin after an adjacent Chinese restaurant shut down earlier this month, according to a complaint filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on March 22 by Burger King and the local operator, Powell Foods of 14391 LLC.
Yesterday, the Burger King and the Chinese restaurant, Hunan Fifth Ave., were closed to customers. A sign in the Burger King ‘s window cited electrical problems, although an employee who declined to give her name said of the rats, “It’s all over the place.”
According to the complaint, the Burger King shut down on March 20, the day after “Inside Edition” aired its segment on rats in New York City restaurants. Citing “irreparable harm” to the restaurant’s reputation, the complaint alleges that the landlord, 401 Fifth LLC, failed to remove unused equipment from the Chinese restaurant, retain pest control, or fill in cracks between the restaurants, which allowed the vermin to pass through to the Burger King.
“The rodents from the vacant Chinese restaurant have begun to migrate into the restaurant, including the restaurant’s dining room and kitchen during operating hours,” the lawsuit said.
The superintendent of the building yesterday declined to comment. Calls to building managers were not immediately returned.
In the window of Hunan Fifth Ave., a sign posted by a city marshal on March 21 indicated that the landlord had repossessed the restaurant, and employees working at the restaurant’s new location on East 40th Street declined to comment.
“Burger King prides itself on maintaining a clean, safe, and healthy environment for its guests,” a company spokesman, Keva Silversmith, said. “We’ve taken immediate action” to solve the problem, he said.
According to the city’s Health Department, the most recent health inspection for the Burger King took place in October, when it received no violation points. A health inspector visited both the Burger King and Hunan Fifth Ave. on March 22, but found both to be closed.
