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Charley’s Waterfront Café Files Eighteen Million Dollar Suit Against Landlord

   Written by on July 23, 2015 at 11:49 am

Charley’s Waterfront Café, a restaurant that has come to be closely associated with the Farmville area since first opening its doors in 1994, has filed suit against its landlord, Richard F. Cralle, Jr. of Green Front Furniture and Southside Holdings. The complaint also lists two other defendants, Fat Frogg, LLC of Elon, North Carolina and Jeffrey MacKenzie, the registered agent and manager of The Fat Frogg.

charleysThe lawsuit, filed in the Prince Edward County Circuit Court on 7/16/2015, alleges that Cralle entered into an agreement with MacKenzie and Fat Frogg, LLC, to build a competing restaurant in the space directly below Charley’s Waterfront Café.

The complaint alleges that doing so would have been in direct violation of the long standing lease agreement between Charley’s and Cralle, specifically in regard to a “restriction as to competition” included in the lease, agreeing that the landlord would not “lease, own, or operate a restaurant in competition to the Tenant in or on any property now owned by the landlord.”

The civil suit accuses Cralle of two counts of “Breach of Contract,” Cralle, Fat Frogg and MacKenzie of one count of “Civil Conspiracy to Injure Professional Reputation,” and Fat Frogg and MacKenzie of one count of “Tortious Interference with a Contract.”

The complaint asks the courts for a “Temporary and Permanent Injunction” against the defendants, stopping the alleged violations of the lease agreement including the ongoing construction of the restaurant below the leased space.

The injunction also asks for damages of $3,000,000 for each count of breach of contract, $3,000,000 per defendant for the alleged civil conspiracy to injure professional reputation ($9,000,000), and $3,000,000 for the alleged tortious interference with a contract, totaling $18,000,000 in damages.

On Wednesday, the Cafe’s legal representation, William M. Stanley of Franklin County, said, “We have filed this suit to protect Charley’s rights that have been trampled by their landlord.”

In a related matter, on 7/20/2015, Judge Kimberly S. White filed an Order of Judicial Disqualification in the aforementioned case,  having determined that it would be improper for her to preside at the trial, and asking that Chief Judge Osborn take the necessary action to fill the vacancy.

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