Two-year legal food fight at trendy 5Church in Charlotte ends with jury award of ... $1
The civil war that erupted among the owners of one of Charlotte’s signature restaurants ended this month in a federal courtroom, not with a food fight but with a series of short questions for the jurors to answer.
One went to the heart of the two-year legal fight within the walls of 5Church:
Did the majority of the restaurant’s ownership group, Map Management, “take improper advantage of its power” in its dealings with investor and co-manager Ayman Kamel?
Yes, the jury ruled.
What did Kamel deserve due to this abuse of power by his partners and former friends?
The jury’s answer:
$1.
The trial, which involved dueling lawsuits between Kamel on one side and restaurant founder Patrick Whalen, co-owner Alejandro Torio and MAP Management on the other, traded allegations of mismanagement, an exorbitant flow of free drinks and food, resume fraud and corporate espionage, among other allegations.
Kamel had asked the jury to set his damages at $75,000 and go up from there. Whalen, one of the original defendants in Kamel’s 2017 complaint, said Kamel instead got what he deserved — next to nothing.
“The sum of money speaks for itself,” Whalen said. “We feel the truth came out, and that the outcome was based on the behavior of someone who acted in a very improper manner.”
Kamel, a major investor in 5Church’s restaurants in Charleston, Atlanta and uptown Charlotte, and the sole manager of the Atlanta branch, told the Observer last week that he remains stunned and disappointed by the size of the award. Kamel must also pay thousands of dollars to his partners after the jury ruled he secretly took over control of 5Church’s email platforms.
“I do respect the decision — and the jury system,” he said. “But I don’t agree with it.”
Even with any ownership discount, $1 will not buy Kamel more than a few forkfuls of any of the hors d’oeuvres on the 5Church menu, from the “Crisp Szechuan Pork Belly ($4)” to the $8 “Indian Spiced Potato Pierogies (with English peas and sweet pea emulsion).”
Kamel’s attorney, Dana Lumsden of Charlotte, however, portrayed the outcome as an important — albeit symbolic — victory for his client.
“Symbolic victories are sometimes OK because the jury recognized that what they did to Ayman was wrong, but they could not come up with a dollar figure,” Lumsden said.
“Sometimes when you have a fight among wealthy business people, it really doesn’t matter to the jury whether a wealthy litigant gets more money.”
DNC favorite
Kamel sued his partners first, saying that the original 5Church in uptown, which emerged as a culinary darling during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, routinely sends a stream of comp food and drink flowing from the kitchen and bar amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost profits every year. He also said his partners raided his Atlanta staff and siphoned 5Church resources to benefit the neighboring Sophia’s Lounge in the Ivey’s Hotel.
In their counter complaint, Whalen et al charged that Kamel sued his partners only after they tried to oust him from the ownership group, citing poor sales and operations at the Atlanta restaurant. They also said he originally was invited to the ownership team based largely on an inaccurate and trumped-up resume. At an early stage of the billowing dispute, they also claim, Kamel secretly seized control of 5Church’s email accounts, which allowed him to monitor the conversations of his estranged partners.
Lumsden said as a co-owner of the 5Church trademark, Kamel had the right to the company’s email and had it redirected to him before Whaley took a similar step. “That’s not hacking,” Lumsden said. “That’s business management.”
The jurors did not agree. They ruled that Kamel had committed computer trespass against the email accounts of the Charlotte and Charleston restaurants and ordered him to pay $7,200.
What’s the point?
At the end of it all, some things didn’t change: The warring partners remain stuck with each other. “If we’re all still partners what was the point in all of this?” Whalen said.
Kamel keeps major stakes in the Charlotte and Charleston restaurants, and remains the majority investor in Atlanta’s 5Church, which he says is outperforming the others. However, he has no stake in Sophia’s or new-concept restaurants in Charleston and Nashville that Whalen says will be opening in the near future.
With a convention and President Trump coming to Charlotte in August, Kamel says he wishes his 5Church partners continued success. He said he did not yet know how he’ll spend the jury’s $1 award.
Lumsden compared the legal fight to a divorce, and the restaurants to the couple’s children that still require joint care.
“They’re still partners. They have to co-exist unless someone is willing to buy someone else out,” he said. “That’s an unfortunate outcome. But that’s where we are.”
Whalen said the end of the legal fight with his one-time friend has been bittersweet.
“He was my mentor, at Ieast I thought so,” Whalen said. “When all is said and done, he has to live his life and I have to live mine, and I hope he finds success.”
Whalen added: “But he spied on my emails and hacked into my computers, and that doesn’t sound like a good friend.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 11:03 AM.
