Worcester bubble tea business sues franchisor over donut prices, defective storefront
Image | Courtesy of Google Maps
Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester
Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester, a cafe specializing in bubble tea and donuts located on Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street, has filed a lawsuit against its franchisor after an alleged breach of contract.
The lawsuit, filed in Worcester County Superior Court on Tuesday, claims in July 2022 the owners of Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester entered into a licensing agreement with the defendants: Damaso Hernandez, who resides in South Easton according to the lawsuit, and Kimochi LLC of Attleborough. But, the lawsuit says, the storefront provided to the owners of Kimochi’s Worcester location had a litany of defects. The lawsuit states Hernandez fraudulently misrepresented the services he would provide.
Kimochi Worcester’s lawsuit claims a breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant, misrepresentation, and Kimochi and Hernandez violated the state’s unfair trade practice law. The company is seeking $203,389 in damages.
The owners of Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester are Raymond Fren and Shawqi Alsarabi, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth’s corporate database.
The lawsuit states the parties entered a contract where Kimochi was supposed to provide the operators of the Worcester location with recipes, formulas, staff training and requirements, and marketing materials, but the suit says Hernandez failed to deliver equipment on-time and refused to pay for fire-rated doors required to receive local approvals to operate.
The lawsuit says Hernandez originally agreed to sell donuts to the Worcester location for a price of $0.56 and $0.72 per donut but later charged the owners $2.00 per donut.
Furthermore, the lawsuit states, among other claims, Hernandez handed over the location to its owners with a variety of defects, including painted-over fire sprinklers, stains on the floor, and an incomplete paint job.
Adrian LeCesne, the founder of Law Office of Adrian LeCesne and Hernandez and Kimochi LLC’s legal representative, pushed back against the claims made by Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester, said that the lawsuit was frivolous and contained factual errors.
“Mr. Hernandez is an upstanding and transparent businessman who had gone out of his way on several occasions to support the Worcester licensee of his Bubble Tea franchise, including replacing valuable equipment that was stolen from the Worcester franchisee's premises after they failed to secure the building,” LeCesne said in an email to WBJ. “We have only this morning become aware of the filing of the law suit, but have been in negotiations with the Plaintiff's attorney for several months relating to what we see as bad faith allegations and frivolous demands.”
LeCesne said the donuts referenced in the contract were provided by a different company than Kimochi LLC and the plaintiffs added details to the contract regarding the donuts without his defendant’s knowledge.
Kimochi held a soft opening in June, according to a post on its Instagram page, but the company’s Google listing notes the business is currently closed temporarily. The lawsuit states the City of Worcester determined the store’s plumbing does not comply with the state’s code.
Kimochi Bubble Tea Worcester’s legal representation, Michael Paul and Matthew Madden of Southborough-based Kenney and Sams, P.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WBJ.
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