Re: Customer's right to determine who is entitled to his tip

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On 1/27/09, George wrote:
> Does a customer have a constitutional right to determine
> who is legally entitled to his tip?
>
> If your answer is NO, please explain why a citizen of the
> United States should be deprived such liberty. Is there any
> harm in allowing customers to determine who should be
> entitled to their tip?

The answer is "no," there is no Constitutional right (read
the Constitution; it lists several liberties, and giving away
tips isn't listed).

While "liberty" may be a reeeeeeeeeeeallllly important right,
you aren't always free to do anything you want (including
giving away tips to the person of your choice) if, as your
question suggests, there is "harm in allowing customers to
determine who should be entitled to thier tip."

First, let's consider the Constitution.

The US Constitution prohibits the interference of contracts
(Article I section 10 prohibits "impairing the Obligation of
Contracts"). An employee of a business is an "agent" of that
business and thus in contractual relationship with the
business (even "at will" employees are considered to have
an "at will" contract).

A customer wanting to provide a benefit (a tip) to the agent
for performing the service for which the agent was hired is
creating a conflict of interest for the agent and interfering
with the business' contractual relationship with the agent.

Rather than solely serving the interests of the business (the
principal), the agent (if patrons may tip) will
invariably "serve two masters," depriving the business of its
contractual and thus constitutionally protected right (and,
in addition, assisting the violation of the agent's duties
under common law) to loyalty and exclusive service.

While it may be reasonable for someone who feels underpaid to
think they deserve a tip, the Constitution does not give
anyone the right to impair contractual obligations, nor
create a conflict of interest for agents, nor to induce an
agent's violation of the duty of loyalty.