One Guy 50th Street location as seen in late 2023. Staff photo.
Papa V restaurant won an almost two-year legal food fight with the owner of the 50th Street One Guy From Italy after a summary judgment.
Judge Les Hatch of the 237th District Court ruled this week the former owner of iconic Lubbock restaurant One Guy did not violate a non-compete agreement with the new owner.
“The non-compete is not enforceable as it is overbroad/unrelated to protecting the intellectual property rights – the subject of the 2020 agreement, which was independent from the sale of any business,” Hatch wrote.
Even trying to reform the non-compete agreement would not salvage it, the judge wrote, adding the defendants – Papa V, brothers Salvatore “Sal” and Girolamo “Jerry” Mazzamuto – are off the hook for paying damages to Gabe Vitela.
Attorneys Don Dennis and Andy Seger asked Hatch to make a summary judgment throwing out the case before its May 12 trial date.
“Both Sal and Jerry Mazzamuto each have their own economic ventures which operate independently of one another. Sal as a commercial landlord and Jerry as a restaurant owner, but neither run a Fortune 500 Company,” wrote the attorneys.
A summary judgment means both sides more or less agree on the facts, and a judge decides the matter based on legal analysis.
“They are small town, main-street, small business owners, and through the course of this litigation, they have been forced to endure their good name being disparaged in the media, and to sit idly by while virtually every vendor connected to their respective businesses has been subpoenaed, to include the trash collector for Papa V, Inc. This has gone on long enough,” the attorneys wrote.
The official ruling was not entered into the court record as of Thursday morning. However, the judge issued an email which was added into the official record saying he would rule in favor of the Mazzamutos.
Meanwhile, Vitela’s attorney, Fernado Bustos, said in a text message to LubbockLights.com, “My client plans on appealing the summary judgement ruling. That’s all I can say right now.”
Bustos commented for our story in October 2023.
At that time, he said, “ … Jerry is assisting in aiding and abetting his brother in breaching that non-compete, and they’re working hand in glove together to breach that contract ….”
History
Almost two years ago, new owner Vitela sued the Mazzamutos – accusing them of violating a non-compete agreement.
Previous coverage:
- Current, former owners of 50th Street One Guy From Italy waging legal food fight
- ‘Clear abuse’ claim rejected by appeals court in One Guy lawsuit, case heading to trial
Vitela purchased the intellectual property rights of One Guy including the name and recipes for $100,000 from Sal, the owner. Jerry founded One Guy in 1990 but turned it over to Sal in 2002.
Vitela purchased the 50th Street location in 2017 and the trade name in 2020. He also purchased the University location from a different owner who was not involved in the case.
In the terms of the 2020 agreement, Sal could be in the restaurant industry anywhere except Lubbock County. But Sal did not start a new restaurant called Papa V. Jerry did.
And Jerry was not part of the non-compete agreement.
Court records said Sal bought a former restaurant building at 8008 Abbeville Avenue (not far from 82nd Street and Slide Road) and rented it to Jerry, where he opened Papa V.
Dennis and Seger wrote, “Even if it were enforceable (it is not), the non-compete does not prevent Mr. Mazzamuto from being a landlord. It does not even address this scenario at all.”
They also criticized the plaintiff’s strategy.
“Distraction and obfuscation are the weapons of litigants who either have no case or one that is so factually tenuous that they are forced to resort to parlor tricks to hide the true nature of their claims,” Dennis and Seger wrote, adding the case caused “enormous financial burdens that the individual defendants, who are 76 and 73 years old respectively, together with their entities have been forced to bear.”
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