Think your family is dysfunctional? Just wait until you meet the Piazzas of Staten Island.
Nicholas Piazza, the 29 year-old son of Salvatore Piazza, is suing his father for failure to pay him overtime at the family's ice cream distribution business Ice Cream & Ice House, The New York Post reports.
Should his lawsuit continue to move forward, Nicholas Piazza will be among the thousands of Americans suing their employers over payment disputes. Last year, roughly 7,000 lawsuits were filed in federal court. Lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations have risen 400 percent over the last 11 years.
Nicholas is claiming that he occasionally worked 80 hours a week and only earned $10 an hour. And now, he wants to get paid. Salvatore claimed that Nicholas, as the firm's former Vice President, was never underpaid. In addition, his step-mother Patricia alleges that Nicholas "bought an ice-cream truck and then he lied to all our customers."
The Piazzas are not alone in letting money affect family life.
In 2008, comedian Dane Cook accused his half-brother of stealing $11 million from Great Dane Enterprises, the comedian's company, Boston.com reports. His half-brother plead guilty to the charge. Before that, in 2006, Anthony Marshall Astor was accused by his son, Philip, of maltreating Philip's grandmother, Brooke Astor, as she lay dying, Fox Business reports. In 2009, Marshall was convicted of siphoning millions from his mother on her death bed.