Nom Wah Tea Parlor has been a Doyers St. establishment for a century.
Photograph: Jeenah Moon/The Washington Publish/Getty Photos
The behind-the-scenes battle at Chinatown’s oldest restaurant appeared, for some time, as if it might need settled down. However a brand new lawsuit makes it clear that this struggle is way from over. Three years in the past, the Doyers Avenue dim sum parlor Nom Wah turned embroiled in a lawsuit filed by feuding cousins, Vincent and Wilson Tang. In the long run, the 2 cut up the empire — Vincent would run the unique restaurant; Wilson, its newer offshoots — whereas sharing management of the corporate, its mental rights, and, crucially, a checking account. The animosity between the companions appears to not have pale in that point. Final month, Wilson filed a brand new lawsuit in opposition to Vincent alleging that he has engaged in “malicious and outright unlawful conduct which threatens the way forward for the Firm.”
Amongst different costs, Wilson contends that Vincent withdrew over $90,000 from an organization account with out consent, revoked entry to an organization checking account, refused to distribute funds for firm bills, and helped produce a documentary movie that erased Wilson from Nom Wah’s story. Wilson is searching for a minimal of $200,000 for the breaches of contract allegedly dedicated by Vincent in addition to the elimination of Vincent from the corporate. In response, Vincent’s lawyer argues that the lawsuit is “frivolous” and motivated solely by Wilson’s “spitefulness.”
“I’m simply making an attempt to do what’s proper for the enterprise. I’m form of accomplished with the present scenario,” Wilson says. He alleges Vincent is “not guided precisely and he’s making these poor judgment calls, and it simply additional proves to me that we are able to’t truthfully work collectively.”
For his half, Vincent lamented that the continuing disagreement had as soon as once more spilled out into the general public. “These things needs to be stored personal,” he says.
Nom Wah is 125 years outdated, a landmark within the coronary heart of Chinatown — however by 2010, its fame was struggling. That was the yr Wilson took over the restaurant, after Fred Tang (Wilson’s uncle and Vincent’s father) purchased the constructing from a pal, Wally Tang, on the situation that he preserve the restaurant open. Wilson introduced the restaurant again to life, bringing in each crowds and a spotlight, turning the spot right into a profitable vacationer vacation spot.
Vincent joined the restaurant in 2015, and stress steadily rose within the ensuing years. Issues got here to a head in 2022: Vincent allegedly locked Wilson out of the restaurant and made it so he couldn’t entry the corporate’s checking account. That July, Vincent filed a authorized grievance accusing Wilson of taking “roughly $490,000” from Nom Wah, together with expensing private objects corresponding to a Porsche and paying himself and his spouse exorbitant salaries. Wilson’s legal professionals referred to as it an “unlawful scheme to take over the corporate and the restaurant.”
The lawsuit was settled the next yr, and the present administration association was put into place. Amongst different stipulations, the cousins agreed to needing written consent for any withdrawal, switch, or cost over $1,000. Violations of the time period sheet carry a minimum-$50,000 penalty, payable to the opposite companion if not resolved inside ten days.
This newest battle started to take form in late 2024 when Wilson was despatched a hyperlink to a documentary about Nom Wah that Vincent had produced. Within the model Wilson noticed, Vincent allegedly claimed to have inherited the restaurant from Wally Tang, whereas Wilson’s position is scrubbed from the story. In a cease-and-desist letter despatched to Vincent and the filmmaker, Wilson’s authorized counsel, Vivian Chen, described the documentary as constituting “actionable defamation, impersonation, identification theft,” and extra. (In February, an edited model of the documentary was uploaded to YouTube; Wilson’s involvement within the restaurant nonetheless isn’t talked about.)
Extra friction arrived this fall: Based on the lawsuit, in September, an administrator for Nom Wah who serves as an middleman between the cousins, Barbara Leung, emailed Vincent to remind him a couple of $8,532.74 bill filed by Wilson to cowl an annual donation to a charity occasion referred to as Lemon Ball, a Pearl River Mart gallery opening in Could, an AAPI reception for Governor Hochul, and a Central Park Conservancy summer time occasion, amongst different bills. When Leung emailed Vincent concerning the bill once more on September 25, he allegedly refused to distribute the funds, saying that the occasions and donations weren’t beforehand accredited. 4 days later, Vincent allegedly withdrew $90,785.94 for — in response to Wilson’s lawsuit — no “objective apart from [his] personal self curiosity,” in violation of the phrases agreed to as a part of the settlement. The authorized grievance calls this “seemingly as an act of defiance and with no correct justification” in retaliation for the repeated requests to reimburse Wilson’s invoices.
On October 29, Vincent’s lawyer filed a solution countering the allegations made in Wilson’s swimsuit. Their facet alleges Wilson’s $8,532.74 was for donations and occasions that promoted his Nom Wah eating places and never the corporate, or the unique Chinatown location, total. They contend that Vincent withdrew the cash to guard his pursuits. They allege within the grievance that this most up-to-date authorized motion quantities to bitter grapes: “Wilson Tang and his legal professional can not settle for the truth that Vincent Tang has acquired the operation of the unique Nom Wah.” The grievance continues that due to this, Vincent “has been harassed on a steady foundation” by Chen “with threats of damages, prices, and frivolous complaints for the only real objective of satisfying her shopper’s spitefulness.”
Thus far, the courtroom doesn’t appear to agree with Vincent’s lawyer. Final week, a choose granted Wilson’s request for a preliminary injunction. Vincent was ordered to deposit $90,785.94 again into the corporate’s checking account, to make Wilson a licensed consultant on the corporate’s checking account, and to reactivate mentioned account. Each Vincent and Wilson say it’s their accountability to maintain the restaurant going. In an announcement offered by his lawyer, Wilson says he’ll struggle “to make sure Nom Wah stays intact for generations to return.”
For his half, Vincent factors out that, because the settlement settlement stipulates, he’s the one operating the unique location, “however sadly, this stuff have been holding me again just a little bit.”
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