The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is considering whether the management company of a Portland McDonald’s franchise can be held vicariously liable after one of its employees yelled a racial slur to a customer he had served in the drive-thru.

James Clifford, a partner of Clifford & Clifford in Portland, on behalf of the plaintiffs, Tiffany Vargas and Erika Acevedo, challenged Cumberland County Superior Judge Thomas R. McKeon ruling in favor of the McDonald’s franchisee, Riverbend Management, and the discriminatory comment from one of its employees, Andrew Mosely.