Harrison v. Murphy

LAYTON, District Judge.

This is an action by plaintiff under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 1 and 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343(3), to recover damages against the defendants, owners as tenants by the entireties of a restaurant, for refusing to allow him to remain seated in their diner after he had ordered food, solely because he was a Negro.

The complaint alleges that this refusal to permit plaintiff to seat himself at the diner counter was “under color of a statute, ordinance, regulation, custom and usage of the State of Delaware * * * ” with the result that plaintiff was deprived of a right,…