When the owners of Charlie Brown’s Steakhouses abruptly shuttered half of the chain’s restaurants in November, about 2,300 employees lost their jobs without warning.
The suddenness of the layoffs prompted some critics to ask whether the company had skirted federal and state laws aimed at preventing such surprises.
But CB Holding, the company that owns the chain, hadn’t broken any laws. It had simply stumbled upon a legal loophole.