By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A lawsuit has been dropped against four former employees of a Howell-based restaurant group.

Adam Merkel owns Diamonds, Cello, and the Silver Pig in downtown Howell, as well as a Royal Oak venture. In May of last year, he filed a lawsuit against four former employees for defamation and comments they made on social media concerning how his restaurants handled the COVID-19 shutdown.

The suit, which had sought a minimum of $25,000 in damages, was dismissed earlier this month by Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty. Merkel’s attorney Bryan Marcus tells WHMI that the decision to drop the litigation was made because no further public statements had been made by the former employees. However, he noted that it was dismissed without prejudice, which means it can be refiled any time.

The employees were among those initially laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic last March but then called back to work April 27th after Merkel was able to secure a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program, which has specific requirements. The four employees chose not to return and posted related statements on social media, for which their employment was subsequently terminated.

However, the employees told WHMI at the time that they weren’t fired because of what they had said online, but instead because they declined to return to work after only being given 24 hours’ notice and that they had legitimate safety and health concerns.

The lawsuit alleged the statements posted on social media were false and had crossed the line from opinion to defamation.