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Published Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | 7:36 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | 10:05 a.m.
Eva Longoria Parker at Beso and Eve on May 29, 2010.
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Two former managers and partners of Eva Longoria Parker’s Beso restaurant and Eve nightclub are suing the actress for allegedly pushing them out of their ownership stake and operation of the CityCenter restaurant-nightclub.
Ronen and Mali Nachum are suing Parker and Beso’s other partner, Jonas Lowrance, alleging breach of contract, assault, false imprisonment and an unpaid loan, according to lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court last week.
The Nachums want to be repaid for a $280,000 loan to the company to fund construction and compensated for damages they’ve suffered, the lawsuit says. They also want to be reinstated as managers at the restaurant-nightclub, according to the lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for Beso and Eve declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday morning.
The lawsuit comes a month after the couple was served a temporary protective order and trespass notice signed by Lowrance.
According to the lawsuit, Parker and her accountant lured the Nachums to the restaurant-nightclub in May with the promise of a meeting on finances, but on the day of the scheduled meeting, the Nachums were served with the temporary protective order and trespass notice, barring them from the restaurant-nightclub and its corporate office.
Following those events, the Nachums were locked out of their company e-mail accounts and financial records, and Lowrance and Parker have refused to communicate with the couple, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit also alleges employees of the Nachums at the restaurant-nightclub have been fired.
The Nachums said they believe an e-mail sent in April 2010 initiated Parker and Lowrance’s efforts to divest the couple from the club.
In an e-mail signed “The staff at Beso and Eve the Nightclub” sent to Parker, claims were made that the Nachums were stealing cash from the company and accused Ronen Nachum of acting like a “tyrant,” the lawsuit said.
Ronen Nachum has been involved with Parker since 2006 when he oversaw the construction of her Beso restaurant in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit said he was contacted in January 2009 by Beso Hollywood investor Anthony Vicidomine to oversee the construction of Beso and Eve inside Crystals at CityCenter.
In April 2009, the Nachums, Lowrance, Vicidomine, Longoria and John Torregiani Jr. entered into Beso’s original operating agreement. Under the agreement, the Nachums received a 21 percent stake in the nightclub in exchange for supervising the construction.
Lowrance and Vicidomine each received a 24 percent interest in exchange for $500,000, while Parker received 9 percent interest for marketing and publicity services. Torregiani received a 1 percent interest for marketing and publicity consulting services.
In February, Vicidomine filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court against Beso for more than $750,000 in connection with the sale of 22 percent of his 24 percent interest to Beso. The lawsuit was settled in Clark County District Court in late May.
In addition to the Nachums allegations, the lawsuit details several nonpayment issues at the restaurant-nightclub, including mechanic liens and $400,000 of debt with the restaurant-nightclub’s liquor supplier.
Beso opened at the Crystals retail and entertainment district at CityCenter on Dec. 3, 2009, and Eve nightclub later opened on New Year’s Eve.
Crystals/CityCenter opened in mid-Dec, Eve/Beso opened on Dec. 30.
My money is on Longoria Parker and her fellow owner Lowrance in this one.
While the District Court Complaint posted by the Sun has the key documents in the ownership structure of the restaurant/night club, the plaintiffs' Achilles Heel is Paragraphs 43 and 44 of the Complaint. They don't attach any documents showing that the plaintiff Mr. Nachum has any ownership interest in the "manager" for the LLC owner of the restaurant/night club.
Typically, lawyers don't add documents as exhibits to a complaint when the documents hurt the b.s. they are peddling on behalf of their client in the complaint. (And this Complaint drones on, ad nauseum, with entirely irrelevant information in terms of the basic question of who has the right to control the management of the restaurant/night club.) As a result, Mr. Nachum's claim that he was illegally barred from Beso doesn't pass the smell test at this point. Who knows, maybe in an amended complaint he could solve that problem.
Then there's the nagging little problem that from the exhibits to the Complaint, its pretty clear that the plaintiffs don't own the majority interest in the LLC which owns the restaurant and night club. The person who actually wrote that part of the Complaint (probably the plaintiffs, not their lawyer) clearly cannot read, let alone add or calculate percentages, and knows zip about the basic law of contracts. The plaintiffs also conveniently ignore their own signature on key documents...typical Middle Eastern trait..."It doesn't matter what I signed, what I want is what controls everyone else."
There may have been lawyer sloppiness on both sides of this restaurant's ownership entity, and its dealings with its LLC manager. Or key documents may have been omitted from the exhibits to the Complaint because they don't fit the plaintiffs' story.
However, if the consent of all of the owners of the LLC is required to fire the management company, which the plaintiffs claim they control 50% of (with no documentary proof) and if the ownership is "deadlocked", a judge can appoint a receiver over the ownership entity, fire the management company, and sell the restaurant/bar.
Sometimes life is really tough on people who do not know how to deal with others in a tasteful, tactful manner. That is obviously the root of the problem here.
Based on what I see in the Complaint, I fully expect the plaintiffs will not prevail and get "home towned". Their effort at smearing Eva Longoria Parker falls flat...and I don't even like Desperate Housewives, let alone the character in the show.
a restaurant = a good way of turning $1 mil into $100,000
I'm suprised someone gets drawn into
something like this