Arby’s might have the meats, but the fast food chain also has a lawsuit on its hands after a terrible and tragic story emerged from a restaurant in Louisiana.
KLFY-TV reported last week that an Arby’s in New Iberia turned into a scene from a horror movie when a manager was found dead in a freezer on May 11.
Nguyet Le was 63 when she died.
Le was the acting manager of the New Iberia location when she was found dead in the restaurant’s walk-in freezer — and the scene being described is grim and unsettling.
“I think once you see the police report, you’re going to see how horrific this was and how it was described to me,” attorney Paul Skrabanek, who is representing Le’s family, told KLFY.
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“Her getting caught into this freezer and trying to beat on the door until her hands were bloody,” Skrabanek said. “There was blood all over the door and then she collapsed into a fetal position before freezing face-first to the floor.”
Le was a general manager in Houston but was assigned to help with the New Iberia location by the Arby’s corporate team, said the attorney, who is based in Houston.
Now, partially because of what was described as a lack of transparency from the company, Le’s family enlisted Skrabanek to sue Arby’s and parent company Inspire Brands Inc.
Despite the tragic incident happening in Louisiana, the lawsuit was filed in Harris County, Texas, which is where Houston is situated.
Arbys Lawsuit by The Western Journal
The suit, filed Thursday, seeks $1 million in “monetary relief.”
Skrabanek told KLFY that the lack of response his inquiries were getting from Arby’s was part of why the family was moving forward with the lawsuit.
The family claims Le’s death could have been prevented had the company simply paid attention to the dilapidated state of the New Iberia location.
Arby’s freezer vic was widowed mom on temporary assignment at eatery https://t.co/BkzZqsMjTY pic.twitter.com/AiA56llByD
— New York Post (@nypost) May 28, 2023
The suit says the family spoke to “a former employee” who relayed some troubling claims about that specific location.
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It says the latch on the freezer had been broken for about nine months, since August 2022, and the New Iberia employees had informed both the district and regional managers.
The lawsuit also claims employees needed to use a screwdriver to “help open and close the door” of the freezer and propped it open with a box out of an abundance of concern.
Horrifically, the suit says Le’s son, Nguyen, was part of the 10 a.m. crew that arrived to find her in the freezer. She had arrived earlier on her own to perform opening duties.
The preliminary autopsy findings said the cause of Le’s death was hypothermia, the lawsuit says.
