A woman has filed a lawsuit against her former business partner, alleging that they attempted to undermine their equal partnership by excluding her from managerial decisions and seeking to remove her from the business.
The complaint filed by plaintiff Ashley Albert names Jonathan Schnapp and LAC Services I, Inc., as Trustee of the Schnapp Family Business Trust as defendants. At the center of the dispute is the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, a business co-founded by Albert and Schnapp with locations in Brooklyn and Chicago. Albert claims that since founding Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in 2012, the parties operated under Biscuits & Tangs, LLC as equal partners. The lawsuit claims that tensions escalated in Spring 2021 when Schnapp began asserting greater control over the company, including demanding sole decision-making authority and pressuring Albert to relinquish her share of management fees.
The dispute intensified when Schnapp invoked a Buy/Sell Provision from their Operating Agreement after initiating a deadlock over key decisions. He offered either to sell his half of the business to Albert for $1.4 million or to buy her half at the same price. The complaint asserts that this offer was intended to compel Albert to exit the business at an undervalued price. Albert accepted the offer to purchase Schnapp's share. The complaint further alleges that Schnapp then attempted to obstruct the transaction by transferring assets out of company accounts and imposing conditions not specified in the agreement.
Albert seeks specific performance to enforce the sale according to the terms of the Operating Agreement. She also requests a price adjustment reflecting unauthorized distributions made after her acceptance of Schnapp’s offer and reimbursement of legal fees related to the alleged breach of contract. In addition, she seeks a declaratory judgment confirming her removal of Schnapp as Manager following his transfer of interests to a family trust without her consent.
The plaintiff is represented by attorney David E. Kirk of Kirk & Ingram LLP. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York under Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-3013.