From WRIL -
Another Sagebrush Restaurant closes in the Claremont Restaurant Group chain, this time in Rogersville, Tennessee and employees still haven’t been paid.
Just before noon on Thursday, January 23, 2020 WRIL was contacted by several ousted employees of the Rogersville restaurant who had been following our coverage of the Corbin overnight closing and the Middlesboro location being served eviction papers.
All those that contact us say that the Rogersville location closed on January 6, 2020 with no notice to employees and that they have yet to be given their last checks they were owed. A copy of a group chat message with the employees and former management claims that checks were indeed sent out to the store, but sent back and would now be sent to each employee’s address. None of those in the group message believed that statement and are still waiting to be paid.
As with the Middlesboro and Corbin issues, we reached out to Claremont Restaurant Group in Mooresville, North Carolina several times on different numbers and they never responded.
While Corbin was padlocked on Wednesday January 15, 2020 by the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department after a writ of possession was served for lack of payment, Middlesboro remains open for now.
The owner of the building in Middlesboro had served Sagebrush eviction papers in November of last year for several months of non-payment of rent. The case went to court for a forcible eviction on December 18, 2020, but lawyers for the owner of the building present a motion “to pass” on eviction proceedings to the court. The reason for passing has not been made public. While the closing of the Middlesboro location has been rumored, we have no confirmation on that claim yet.
WRIL reached out to editor and publisher of the Rogersville Review newspaper Tommy Campbell. Tommy tells us that he had heard some rumblings about issues with the location in Rogersville. He was able to contact Todd Ross (not to be confused with the Hawkins Co. Sessions Court Judge with the same name) from the North Carolina office on Thursday January 23, 2020. Mr. Ross responded to the Rogersville Review’s request for information regarding when the restaurant’s former employees would be paid.
“All team members have been or are being contacted as to pick up the paychecks tomorrow (Friday) afternoon,” Ross said. “FedEx attempted to deliver them at a time no one was at the location, thus returned them to the sender. We have rerouted the checks to the manager of that location and he is meeting team members to be able to pick them up Friday afternoon. We have worked quickly to resolve a situation that should have never occurred. Our priority is to ensure all members are paid immediately.”
Mr. Ross did not elaborate on why the restaurant closed, but we do know that the manager of the Rogersville location did retain a position in the company and is working at another Sagebrush.