500 Tennessee Restaurants to Pay $4.8M Tab for Bankrupt Workers’ Comp Fund

It’s now official — a judge has ordered a group of Tennessee restaurant owners to pay $4.8 million into a workers’ compensation fund that was mismanaged.

About 500 Tennessee Restaurant Association members will have to pay thousands each to shore up the fund.

They had hoped to pay much less. “We are disappointed,” said Nathan Ridley, an attorney for several restaurant owners.

The state liquidated the group’s workers’ compensation fund two years ago and asked restaurant owners to come up with the shortfall to pay injured workers.

In a related case, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance is suing the restaurant association’s chief executive officer. Among other things, the suit claims Ronnie Hart received excessive fees for running the workers’ compensation fund.