Layla’s restaurant owners bounced checks for rent and owe landlords $41,000, lawsuit says
The owners of a closed Gulfport restaurant owe their former landlord more than $41,000 in unpaid rent and loan reimbursement payments, according to a new lawsuit.
Linsey and Jeff O’Keefe signed a five-year lease in September 2020 to open Layla’s restaurant in a newly constructed building on Pass Road. The sandwich shop would be an extension of Nezaty’s, a beloved lunch restaurant that Linsey purchased from her mother-in-law in 2018.
Layla’s opened for business in 2021 but closed in February and said a new restaurant had plans to move into the space next to I Heart Mac and Cheese.
In a lawsuit filed last week in Harrison County Circuit Court, the owners of the building, JSP LLC, claim Linsey and her business, Layla Bug LLC., modified the lease in September 2021 to include an $89,000 loan to be paid over the length of the lease.
Over the next year and half, Linsey O’Keefe regularly failed to make payments under the lease agreements and would often pay rent with checks that would bounce, JPS said in the lawsuit.
On Feb. 8, 2023, Lady Bug LLC requested to break the lease to allow a new tenant to come in while providing “a personal commitment to pay off the balance of the loan,” which was $65,000, plus about $1,300 in water and dumpster fees.
The landlords provided a formal repayment agreement to Lady Bug LLC and Linsey, and added Jeff O’Keefe as a guarantor to repay a reduced amount of $61,298.73 on Feb. 14.
Since Valentine’s Day, the lawsuit claims the O’Keefes have paid only $20,000.
The defendants also agreed to pay 90% of funds received from the new tenant, Bonfire, within five days of receiving payment but have refused to do so, the plaintiff claims in the suit.
JPS LLC is suing for breach of contract, conversion, misrepresentation and fraud. The plaintiffs are asking for the money they are owed, plus consequential damages, extra-contractual damages, punitive damages and attorney and court costs.
The O’Keefes have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.
A lawsuit represents only one side of a legal argument.
This story was originally published April 24, 2023 at 6:50 AM.