The owners of a once popular taco shop in Santa Monica have won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against their former landlords after water leaks and a rodent infestation forced the restaurant to close.
Tacos Punta Cabras opened in a location on Broadway and 10th Street in 2018 after several years in Mid-City. However, the restaurant shuttered its doors in mid-March of 2019 after a particularly rainy winter created persistent leaks in its ceiling.
At the time, Chef Daniel Snukal said the problems predate Punta Cabras’ arrival and the company that managed Broadway Plaza and the property owners, had refused to address them.
Snukal and co-owner Mark Mittleman tried to resolve the issues but ended up filing a lawsuit.
"The serious problems with the unit (and the entire building), known to the Landlord but not disclosed to Plaintiffs, made the unit unfit for any business let alone a restaurant or any other business involving food preparation or handling," said the lawsuit. "These problems included, among others, water leaks from ceilings, walls and plumbing throughout the building, noxious odors emanating from the plumbing and the common areas, and a rodent infestation that was so bad that Plaintiffs could hear the rodents scrambling around in their walls. Plaintiffs only became aware of these problems after they spent over a million dollars in improvements with the building-out of their new restaurant."
According to the lawsuit, the situation was an extremely stressful situation for Plaintiffs, who were attempting to operate a clean and healthy environment to make high quality food and were daily dealing with dirty water leaking in their kitchen and dining area.
Not only did these leaks disrupt the restaurant by forcing staff to re-engineer their kitchen around the water, they also deterred customers from returning to the restaurant and the stress of operating the business, particularly the fear that the leaks or vermin would create a health hazard, wore on the owners.
Attorneys Jim Turken and Neil Thakor from Norton Rose Fulbright represented the restaurant and said that with the onset of the pandemic, there was no opportunity for the business to reopen.
"(The restaurant) was not open for not operating more than six or seven months before they had to close down but he received Michelin recognition in that period of time," said Turken. "Because the leaks and the rats are so bad and you just couldn't cook quality food with the water coming down. He had to close down and so I think he's still considering what's going to happen next to the business but he hasn't been able to reopen it."
The location featured a large dining room and a taqueria and received steady praise from food critics for its innovative takes on Baja-inspired cuisine. That praise, including recognition in the Michelin guide, factored into the suit as part of the calculation into how much money the owners had lost due to the closure.
The plaintiffs won all their claims (Fraud, Breach of Contract, Implied Warranty of Good Faith, Constructive Eviction) and were awarded $1.5M as well as $250,000 in punitive damages against both defendants (926 Broadway LLC and Fortuna Asset Management). Legal fees and additional costs could push the total judgment toward $3 million.
The defendants had filed their own lawsuit against the restaurant owners that claimed they were at fault for the building’s problems. However, those claims were rejected.
"I will tell you that the real travesty of all this is this was this. This was Daniel’s, and I've known his family for some time, this was his dream and he put everything into it. And they also put a whole lot of money into it," said Turken. "And he never got to enjoy what he had."
