A lawsuit involving, now, former investors, Steve Fernandez and Michele Jones, and the current owner of Fuel Woodfire Grill, Tio Gordos Cantina and Lake FX restaurants, Mike Taylor, has been settled and dismissed. In a statement from Jones and Fernandez through attorney Timothy J. Lozen, the pair announced the termination of ownership interests as investors in the three Port Huron restaurants. The couple began investing in Fuel Woodfire Grill in January 2013 followed by Tio Gordos Cantina in 2015 and eventually Lake FX Grill in 2017. The decision came after gross mismanagement was discovered \u201cupon filing a lawsuit against the Restaurants\u2019 manager to obtain company records.\u201d The mismanagement included not paying federal payroll taxes and Michigan unemployment compensation taxes for years in addition to untimely payments for business expenses. Michael Taylor is the named defendant in the settlement which cites \u201cTaylor was at all times\u2026manager of the companies and was solely responsible for the operations and financial affairs of the Companies.\u201d In the Settlement Agreement and dismissal order entered in St. Clair County Circuit Court Case No. 2019-002876-CB, Fernandez\/ Jones transferred 100% of their interests in the companies to Taylor. The agreement also states that \u201cTaylor and the Companies agree to release, indemnify, and hold harmless Fernandez\/Jones from and against any and all losses, damages, liabilities, claims, actions, judgments, court costs and legal or other expenses\u201d that presently exist or may occur in the future. According to the Settlement and Release Agreement that was dated effective February 10, 2020, \u201cAs a result of Taylor’s mismanagement, the Companies are in serious financial trouble,\u201d and \u201cUntil recently, Fernandez\/Jones had no knowledge of Taylor’s mismanagement, the excessive liabilities, the hundreds of thousands of dollars of outstanding taxes and loans, or the precarious financial condition of the Companies.\u201d As of Thursday afternoon, the restaurants were still in operation. Fernandez and Jones said they, \u201ccontinue to believe in the future of Port Huron and its surrounding areas as great places to live, work and invest.\u201d The couple assures they are committed to continuing \u201ctheir development of a full-service downtown grocery store and mixed-use office space at 310 Huron Avenue, and further improvements to Country Style Marketplace in Fort Gratiot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lawsuit involving, now, former investors, Steve Fernandez and Michele Jones, and the current owner of Fuel Woodfire Grill, Tio Gordos Cantina and Lake FX restaurants, Mike Taylor, has been settled and dismissed. In a statement from Jones and Fernandez through attorney Timothy J. Lozen, the pair announced the termination of ownership interests as investors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":26818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1968,24],"tags":[742,4294,3558,4297,4295,4296],"class_list":["post-26812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current","category-daily-news","tag-downtown-port-huron","tag-fuel-woodfire-grill","tag-lake-fx","tag-lawsuit","tag-resturants","tag-tio-gordos","et_post_format-et-post-format-video","et-has-post-format-content"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n