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A crabby confrontation

September 21, 2008 12:16 am

For a fictitious name, "Capt. Jack" is causing real headaches for its Spotsylvania County owners.

John Hobbs is suing his former business partners for, among other things, using the Capt. Jack's Crab Shack name for their new store on Morris Road and saying the original Capt. Jack's on Courthouse Road had closed permanently.

"They were like family to me," said Hobbs, who has reopened the Courthouse Road business. "It's pretty disheartening."

Shelly Van Cleve, who owns and operates the new store with her sister and daughter, claims Hobbs had planned to close the original location and move to Florida, then changed his mind.

"Once he tried to open back up, I think we were doing really well down here. I don't think this is more than a case of sour grapes," said Van Cleve, who plans to countersue next month.

Both agree, however, that their business partnership worked for seven years. And both registered as owners of Capt. Jack's Seafood Shack LLC when they filed a certificate of assumed or fictitious name in Spotsylvania Circuit Court in 2004.

Hobbs' suit, in part, asks the court to clarify his and the Van Cleves' rights to the Capt. Jack's name. He and the Van Cleves tried, and failed, to settle out of court this summer.

Versions of how they came up with the name differ. Hobbs said he thought of it after staying at a bed-and-breakfast in Ireland where the woman serving him coffee kept calling him "Jack." Van Cleve said she brainstormed 10 or 15 names for marketing purposes before picking Capt. Jack's Crab Shack.

"It kind of rhymed," she said. "It was just a fictitious name, but you could invent a character with it."

Trouble apparently didn't start until the partners decided to expand. Hobbs said he wanted a family member to run the Courthouse Road store, which is on the same parcel of land as his house.

"Shelly did a good job; she can sell sand to the Egyptians," he said. "She got too possessive. When I brought this up, she got bitter and angry."

For her part, Van Cleve said she didn't want to turn the reins of the Courthouse Road store over to someone she didn't know, especially since she thought she was capable of managing both stores.

"I wanted to run both because I named the business, invented all the recipes, did all the marketing, was the sole administrator of the Web site and purchased everything," she said. "The building was on his property, but he was more of a silent partner."

Originally, Van Cleve was the store manager while Hobbs, an excavating contractor, helped out after work and did most of the bill paying and bookkeeping. Profits were split 50-50.

The two, along with Van Cleve's husband, Curtis Van Cleve, and her daughter, Alexandra Van Cleve, also formed two other businesses, Crab Shack Ventures LLC and Virginia Crab Cake Co. LLC. These sold such creations as crab cakes, crab lollipops, crab pie and Key lime pie out of the Courthouse Road store.

In his lawsuit, Hobbs said he helped Van Cleve move into and equip the Morris Road location with the understanding that it would be "a separate and distinct operation." Shelly Van Cleve said Hobbs asked to have his name taken off the lease, and only her and her daughter's names are listed on the permit from the state Health Department.

The Van Cleves named their store Capt. Jack's Seafood Shack after a lawyer assured them that both they and Hobbs had rights to the name, Shelly Van Cleve said. They also filed a certificate of assumed or fictitious name for Capt. Jack's Seafood Shack for a new company, Crab Shack Ventures LLC.

"I don't know why she just didn't call it something else," said Hobbs. "It would have been less confusing for customers."

Hobbs' lawsuit claims the message on the Capt. Jack's answering machine and Web site was changed to say that the business had moved and the Courthouse Road location was closed permanently.

According to the response that the Van Cleves' lawyer, Paul Simpson, has filed with Spotsylvania Circuit Court, Hobbs has acknowledged that his location was closed at the time, and never alleged that he planned to reopen or that the Van Cleves knew that he planned to do so.

After the Morris Road store opened, Hobbs changed the locks on the Courthouse Road store. He claims that the Van Cleves later entered it without his permission and took much of the inventory, including crab meat, cookbooks, a stuffed shark and all of the paperwork for the business.

The Van Cleves denied that allegation in their response. They also said Hobbs did not back up his other allegations, such as discovering to his surprise that the original business had accumulated $15,000 plus penalty and interest in back taxes since 2003.

Simpson pointed out that Hobbs admitted in his complaint that he was responsible for most of the bookkeeping and bill paying, and never said Shelly Van Cleve was responsible for paying taxes on the business.

The lawsuit also claims that the Van Cleves refused to share profits from Crab Shack Ventures LLC, Virginia Crab Cake Co. and their Morris Road location with Hobbs. The Van Cleves' response said that Hobbs did not show that there were any profits.

"It's just gotten ugly," Hobbs said of the situation. "Both of us probably think we're right."

Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com