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BUSINESS
Court order closes Moe's in Pullman
HUNTINGTON -- The lights are off, the chairs are on top of the tables and there's a padlock on the door. Moe's Southwest Grill in Pullman Square was closed Thursday following a lawsuit that said the restaurant's owner owed $30,000 in back-rent.
Circuit Judge John Cummings issued a preliminary decision Wednesday in favor of Metropolitan Huntington LLC, which leases space to businesses at Pullman, to take immediate control of the property. Bill Dargusch, a developer for Metropolitan Huntington LLC., said they filed a lawsuit in July against Lateralus LLC., the leasee, and Barb Wood, franchise owner, for four months of delinquent rent totaling $30,000.
"It's a very simple circumstance," Dargusch said. "Rent was not paid and we exercised our rights as the property owners to have her removed."
According to the West Virginia Secretary of State's online Business Organization Information System, Wood is an organizer of Lateralus LLC. Both are listed to be based in Barboursville.
A copy of the lawsuit was not available Thursday afternoon because a copy of it was locked in Cummings' office. Cummings must review the lawsuit before the final judgment is made in the lawsuit, according to the representing attorneys.
Waters Law Office attorney Jason Poling is representing Lateralus LLC. and Wood. Poling said Cummings issued a provisional remedy that allowed Metropolitan to take immediate control of the property. Instead of continuing to allow the business to operate before the final decision is made, Metropolitan padlocked the doors and evicted the owner.
Dargusch said they are already planning on filling the space "quicker rather than sooner" once the lawsuit is resolved. Now that Metropolitan has taken over the property, Dargusch said they are working to receive the delinquent rent payments through a lawsuit.
Poling wouldn't comment on whether his clients were intending to file a counter lawsuit in the 10-day filing period.
The Moe's franchise has had a difficult past in Huntington. The Herald-Dispatch reported in March 2006 that Construction One Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, filed a lawsuit in Cabell Circuit Court against the former owners of Moe's. The construction company claimed in the suit that it signed a contract in August 2005 to build the restaurant, but is still owed $277,946. Metropolitan Huntington LLC. was named as a defendant in that suit as well.
Wood purchased the restaurant franchise at a foreclosure auction in the fall of 2006.
The Moe's Pullman Square location closed in January 2007 after Wood could not come to a lease agreement with Metropolitan Huntington LLC. Wood reopened the restaurant in December 2007 in the same location along 3rd Avenue.
