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Haunted Restaurant Lawsuit



There’s a big ghostly scuffle going on over an Orlando restaurant. Seems that the restaraunteurs who agreed to rent a newly renovated building are now refusing to move into it, claiming that it’s haunted. And the landlords are suing (the renters, not the ghosts).

Christopher and Yoko Chung, the owners of Amura Japanese Restaurant, had planned to move into the building last October, but backed out of the lease.

Franklin said Christopher Chung’s religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness required him to “avoid encountering or having any association with spirits or demons,” and Chung also objected to the offer for an exorcism because it is a Roman Catholic rite not accepted by his faith.

There have been several alleged sightings:

Subcontractors who worked there and other people have reported seeing ghosts or other apparitions, said Lynn Franklin, attorney for the restaurant owners.

“It’s very serious,” Franklin said Thursday. “A lot of people are corroborating having seen incidents in this location.” […]

A company called Orlando Ghost Tours regularly led visitors through the property until it changed hands in 2001 and still begins its tours in front of the building.

Who knows how any of this will hold up in court though. Perhaps the best line in the whole piece though: “The lawsuit also asks a judge to decide whether the building is haunted and, if so, whether the ghosts would interfere with the restaurant’s business.” Can a judge really decide something like that? If they can, then we really need to get a daytime court show with a judge who only tries cases related to ghosts, cause I’m tired of all this squabbling redneck shit they show all the time.







7 Reader Responses

  1. Nenad Ristic Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 3:04 am

    I think that you should pitch the TV show idea to one of the channels, I am sure they would pick it up.

    Hell, I would watch it, and I hate TV.

    Hmmm…. I think this might work here in South Africa as well… I think we are onto something!

    I wish I could say I was kidding about this, but I am not sure…

  2. Rev max Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 3:51 am

    I call bullshit. If this guy is such a strong JW he won’t even let an exorcist do his thing, then why is he even worried about ghosts in the first place? JWs don’t believe in ghosts. There literature tells us so. When people die theyir souls go into suspended animation in preparation for the final judgement. Ghosts do not exist. Its that simple.

    This guy need sto figure out what he believes before he starts complaining. I mean he believes in ghosts but not in exorcists? That’s liek believing in hunger but not food - hey at least food you can see.

  3. channel null Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 8:54 am

    I’m also calling bullshit, but as in “PR Campaign.” “Come to the [spooky music] Haunted Restaurant!” It’s like life has become The Simpsons.

    Max, I the nutjob, neurotic combination of folk beliefs with monolithic Xian beliefs frustrates me to no end. Whereas Santiera, Voudon, Hoodoo, etc. sycretize Xian and indigenous beliefs successfully, most North American mainliners want to live in a world with space aliens, angels, The Eteranal Truth of the Living Elvis, but it all has to fall under the banner of “What Would Jesus Do?” I can understand this urge–Elvis alone is hundreds of times more interesting than the whole of, say, Southern Baptist beliefs and practices, but this is moronitude. Most Xians profess monotheism and the Pauline Faith as the only real faith, but in truth practice monoaltry or henotheism.

    One of the Viking Youth related how a friend of his described being “Saved” as “In Heaven you get to smoke crack and skateboard all day.”

    This is just rank neuroticism. I group it with “I believe in ghosts but not in banishing” thing, my number-one complaint with mainstream Protestant society. It’s like believing in astrology but not in rituals–not only is it disempowering, it becomes an excuse for irresponsibility. “Reality is open source,” “You also build the temple,” “Do not decieve me! You are also god,” insert battlecry here, etc.

  4. alistair Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 12:59 pm

    isn`t that disempowerment deliberately built in? the whole of shopping-mall religion is about limited beliefs. not, what can we do with the tools at hand, but, we`d better not dare….

  5. alistair Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 1:35 pm

    britney spears is an anagram for……….. Presbyterians. yes, i know, i was stunned too. that`s why i posted it inappropriately.

  6. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 2:20 pm

    WOW! That’s a killer anagram!

  7. alistair Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 4:12 pm

    imagine how the presbyterians feel.



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