Lawson v. Harris Culinary Enterprises, LLC
Annotate this CaseDefendant Mitzi Lawson appealed a judgment in favor of Plaintiffs Harris Culinary Enterprises, LLC (HCE), John C. Harris III (Clinton), and John C. Harris, Jr. (John), (collectively "the Harrises"), on their fraud claims related to their purchase of a restaurant franchise. Mitzi was married to codefendant, Sims Lawson. Following his marriage to Mitzi, Sims formed SYM, Inc. for the purpose of operating a "Fox's Pizza Den" restaurant franchise in Killen. Sims purchased a building in which to operate the franchise; that building was titled solely in Mitzi's name. At some time before the events giving rise to their claims on appeal, John and Clinton formed HCE for the purpose of operating pizza-restaurant franchises. In March 2007, the Harrises entered into negotiations with Sims to purchase the Killen franchise. According to the Harrises, in an apparent attempt to secure a higher purchase price, Sims purportedly generated false financial reports evidencing higher gross sales and profits for the Killen franchise than were actually realized. The Harrises ultimately purchased the Killen franchise. As a condition of the sales agreement, the Harrises entered into a one-year lease agreement to continue operation of the Killen franchise in its then current location. The Harrisses initiated the underlying lawsuit alleging that as a result of the allegedly falsified financial reports, they were induced to purchase both the franchise and enter into the lease agreement. Mitzi moved to dismiss the claims against her, arguing that she made no actual representation to the Harrises. Plaintiffs won at trial, and Mitzi appealed. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that there was no evidence presented at trial from which the court could have reasonably determined that Mitzi made any misrepresentation to the Harrises. Accordingly, the Court reversed the trial court's judgment against her.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.