Too many Brennans spoil the broth

A long-running feud among the members of one of New Orleans’s leading restaurant families will go back to court for yet another round.  Members of the Brennan family—which control such famous Crescent City eateries as the original Brennan’s (left), Commander’s Palace, Mr. B’s Bistro, Bacco, Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill, and Ralph’s on the Park, as well as units in Las Vegas, Houston, and California—are again trying to stop Cousin Dickie Brennan from using the family name.

The interesting point this time is that the newest battle is over a settlement agreement from a previous round of the litigation. In 1998, the various Brennans agreed to a settlement that let Dickie continue to use the Brennan name.  But his cousins sued him in 2000, claiming he had breached the agreement in the way he used the Brennan name in his own Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse and other restaurants.  They won a jury verdict in 2002, but the jury found that the breach was not substantial enough to terminate the agreement.

Now they’re trying again, arguing that since the 1998 settlement has no termination date, it is terminable at will. They have sent Cousin Dickie a termination notice. Lawyers for Dickie argue that the claim is too late; issues about the prior agreement should have been raised in the 2000 lawsuit.