School’s suit over Kohl’s contest is tossed

A lawsuit filed by a Florida school against two Jewish day schools in the state over a national online contest sponsored by Kohl\'s was dismissed. A judge in Broward County, Fla., dismissed the suit on March 3, saying that the owners of the Abi\'s Place school for disabled children could not prove that it had an official deal with the Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy to help Abi\'s win votes.

[additional-authors]

Jewish Journal

March 7, 2011

A lawsuit filed by a Florida school against two Jewish day schools in the state over a national online contest sponsored by Kohl’s was dismissed.

A judge in Broward County, Fla., dismissed the suit on March 3, saying that the owners of the Abi’s Place school for disabled children could not prove that it had an official deal with the Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy to help Abi’s win votes.

Abi’s Place, which has 10 special-needs children, finished in 21st place in the Kohl’s Cares Facebook contest that ended Sept. 3, narrowly missing out on the $500,000 prize that went to each of the top 20 schools.

The school alleged in its lawsuit that it paid $3,750 in expenses to the two Jewish schools in a joint vote-getting effort but did not receive assistance.

The Hebrew Academy Community School and Bais Chaya were among 12 U.S. Jewish day schools that finished in the top 20. Eleven of the top 20 were Chabad-affiliated, according to the Lubavitch.com website. Three of the Chabad-affiliated schools eventually were disqualified for voting irregularities.