The Swinging Richards lawsuit was actually a pair of federal wage cases brought by male dancers at the Atlanta all-male nude club against 1400 Northside Drive, Inc. and its owner, C.B. Jones II. The first case ended in a $1.36 million settlement covering 37 dancers in early 2017. The second produced a May 2018 jury verdict of more than $645,000 for five dancers, plus attorneys’ fees. Together, the payouts pushed the club into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2019 and contributed to its permanent closure on January 15, 2022.
What the Dancers Were Suing Over
Swinging Richards classified its dancers as independent contractors and paid them nothing. Income came entirely from customer tips, and before a dancer could keep any of it, the club collected a set of nightly fees, a “house fee,” a “DJ fee,” and a “t-shirt fee,” that typically ran at least $100 per shift. Dancers were also required to tip out security and managers.
The independent contractor label let the club skip the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and other employer obligations. Dancers received IRS Forms 1099-MISC rather than W-2s. By the mid-2010s, courts around the country were increasingly finding that this kind of “pay to work” arrangement violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The First Case and the $1.36 Million Settlement
In 2013, more than two dozen current and former dancers filed a collective action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Henderson et al. v. 1400 Northside Drive, Inc. (Case No. 1:13-cv-03767-TWT). Eventually 37 dancers opted in. They alleged that the club’s failure to pay minimum wage and its mandatory fee system violated the FLSA. The club filed counterclaims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, arguing the independent contractor agreements the dancers had signed were binding.
On June 3, 2016, the court issued a pretrial order that largely gutted the club’s defense. It ruled that C.B. Jones II personally qualified as an “employer” under the FLSA because he controlled operations, finances, hiring and firing, and the classification and pay policies. The court also found that the club was a covered enterprise required to pay minimum wage, that it had to reimburse dancers for fines, fees, and tip-outs, and that its counterclaims failed.
Trial was set for January 2017. On the eve of trial, the parties settled for $1.36 million paid to the 37 dancers.
The Retaliation Case and the 2018 Jury Verdict
Robert Casey had opted into the Henderson action, then withdrew. According to his complaint, the club told him he could no longer work there unless he pulled his consent to join the lawsuit; he withdrew under duress in May 2014, and the club refused to rehire him.
On December 7, 2016, Casey filed a separate lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia (Case No. 1:16-cv-04517-SCJ) before Judge Steve C. Jones. Four other dancers, Taylor Addy, Roger Wilson, Zachary Chastain, and Travis Delduca, joined as plaintiffs with FLSA minimum-wage claims. Casey added a retaliation claim and a claim that the club willfully filed fraudulent 1099s to misclassify him.
The case went to trial. On May 9, 2018, a federal jury found that the club and Jones had willfully violated the FLSA and had retaliated against Casey. Judgment was entered on May 31, 2018:
- Robert Casey: $131,544, comprising $76,356 for retaliation and $55,188 for minimum-wage violations.
- Zachary Chastain: $170,469, the largest individual award.
- Roger Wilson: $120,060.
- Taylor Addy: $114,525.50.
- Travis Delduca: $108,847.50.
The damages were doubled through liquidated damages, the FLSA’s penalty for willful violations. The court also awarded $163,658.56 in attorneys’ fees and $5,369.45 in costs.
Bankruptcy and Whether Dancers Got Paid
On May 2, 2019, 1400 Northside Drive, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Case No. 19-56846). Jones filed a personal Chapter 11 case (No. 19-20853) that was jointly administered.
The corporate filing listed estimated assets of $50,000 to $100,000 against liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Unsecured debts included $667,000 still owed to dancers from the FLSA settlement, plus an undisclosed amount owed to the Georgia Department of Revenue for income taxes, interest, and penalties.
Collection was uncertain. Benjamin Jones, the attorney then representing the Casey plaintiffs, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2019 that his clients had been “trying to be close” on collection but had no payment schedule. “I wish I could tell you that we have a payment schedule… but we don’t,” he said. Court records later reviewed by Atlanta Magazine showed more than $746,000 still owed to former dancers as the club approached closure.
Days before filing bankruptcy, the club launched a GoFundMe seeking $1 million to cover the jury award and keep operating, blaming “a recent court decision and overly aggressive lawyers looking for profit.” It had raised nothing by the time of the filing.
Closure
The club stayed open through the reorganization, but the COVID-19 pandemic added further losses. Around Thanksgiving 2021, the owners decided to close permanently. Swinging Richards held its final night on January 15, 2022, after more than 30 years in Atlanta.
Why the Dancers Won
The Swinging Richards cases fit a broader pattern of courts rejecting strip clubs’ independent contractor defenses. The governing framework is the “economic realities” test, which asks whether a worker is economically dependent on the business or genuinely operating independently. When a club sets schedules, dress codes, rules, and pricing while charging dancers fees to work, courts have consistently treated the club as an employer regardless of what the contract calls the arrangement. As Nichols Kaster attorney Michele Fisher put it after the Henderson settlement, “The strip club industry, with its illegal pay to work scheme, is no exception” to federal wage and hour law.