HOUSTON – Key takeaways:
1. Bun B and the co-owners of Trill Burgers are involved in a legal dispute with former managers Benson and Patsy Vivares.
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2. The Vivareses left the partnership after being accused of using money to pay off debts for their other business, Sticky’s Chicken.
3. Benson and Patsy Vivareses accuse their former partners of stealing their recipe for the OG Trill Burger.
Trill Burgers co-owners and Bun B are embroiled in a legal dispute where they’re accusing former managers, the brother and sister team Benson and Patsy Vivares of misappropriating funds.
The Vivareses are accusing their former Trill Burgers partners of stealing their recipe.
The lawsuit and counterclaims are sparking a battle over financial transparency, control, and the future of the Houston-based smash burger venture.
Trill Burgers lawsuit
Trill Burgers was formed in July 2021 as a Houston pop-up restaurant with five managers: Benson Vivares, Patsy Vivares, Bun B, Andy Nguyen, and Nick Scurfield. The Vivares were also working their uber-popular food truck business, Sticky’s Chicken at the time. They say that’s where they came up with the recipe for what eventually became known as the OG Trill Burger.
After working together for less than a year, the Vivareses got out of the partnership after being accused by the other three of using money to pay off Sticky’s Chicken.
Bun B, Nguyen and Scurfield sued the sibling, accusing them of stealing that $45,000. The company sent a separation agreement and as of Jan. 2023, the lawsuit states that the defendants neither returned the misappropriated funds nor signed the separation agreement. They want access to past account information to determine how funds by Patsy and Benson Vivares were spent.
The lawsuit says during the company’s early stages, the Vivareses were in control of finances and funneled business income through the now-defunct restaurant Sticky’s Chicken. The various pop-up restaurants, including a successful booth at the Houston Rodeo, were held in 2021 and early 2022. However, after the rodeo in 2022, the lawsuit revealed that the financial transparency decreased. The lawsuit reportedly contains a text message from Patsy saying she used $45,000 of the rodeo money to settle Sticky’s Chicken bills. The text message reads, “I used $45,000 of the rodeo money to pay for stickys. These bills were pressing & were threatening to shut us down.”
The lawsuit asks the Vivareses to pay $250,000.
Accusations of deception and control
On October 30, 2023, the Vivareses responded to the lawsuit by filing a general denial. The Vivares denied every allegation made by Bun B and his partners. They demanded strict proof of these allegations in the petition. As part of their defense, the defendants the Vivareses assert that their actions were justified under the business judgment rule and that the alleged funds they used were actually reimbursable expenses for the benefit of the company.
On Jan 5, 2024, the Vivareses filed counterclaims against Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, Nicholas Scurfield and Andy Nguyen. The lawsuit alleges that Bun B, is attempting to deceive his partners, Patsy and Benson, and take control of Trill Burgers LLC, a company that was set up to operate a smash burger venture. Patsy and Benson claim in the lawsuit that they were the ones who came up with the idea for Trill Burgers and put in the hard work to make it successful. They recruited Bun B to be the face of the concept, but now he and the other defendants are trying to push Patsy and Benson out of the business.
According to court documents, Patsy and Benson accuse the defendants of breaching their fiduciary duties by operating competing businesses under the name “Trill Burgers” without their consent and diverting funds and resources away from Trill Burgers LLC. They also claim that the defendants falsely accused them of stealing money and tried to force them to sign over their membership interests in the company. In response, Patsy and Benson have hired lawyers to defend themselves and are seeking relief from the court. They are asking for a declaration that the competing businesses and their assets belong to Trill Burgers LLC, disgorgement of any profits or benefits obtained by the defendants through their wrongful conduct, and an injunction to prevent the defendants from further interfering with Trill Burgers LLC.
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The countersuit states, “Let it be known: Trill Burgers was not Bun B’s idea; nor was it the result of his sweat, equity, or ingenuity. Patsy and BJ (Benson) are the true heroes. This brother and sister duo—recognized contributors to HTX’s dynamic food scene—made Trill Burgers possible. They, along with Andy, developed the idea. They, along with Andy, recruited Bun B to be its face. And they alone—without the financial or operational help of Bun B or his eventual cohorts Andy and Nick—put Trill Burgers on the map. As accurately reported by PaperCity Magazine, “Bun B fell in love with the smash burger concept and decided to come on board the Trill Burgers team.”1 It was not the other way around. Bun B was invited to the party; he did not start it.”
Attorney’s response
The attorney representing Trill Burgers in the lawsuit, Charles Adams of Roebuck, Thomas & Adams PLLC, sent the following text messages and statement to KPRC2.
“The claim that Mr. Freeman stole money was first made in the Vivares’ response to our lawsuit. It is analogous to an unfaithful partner who accuses their innocent spouse of cheating after being caught red handed. Bun B stole nothing. We do know that Patsy Vivares misappropriated Trill Burgers funds because she admitted in writing that she did it. We do not know how much more of Trill Burgers monies the Vivares misappropriated because the Vivares never provided their former partners with requested documentation.
While the Vivares’ conduct was reprehensible it pales in comparison to the conduct of her lawyers Mr. Aziz and Mr. Beard who employed a racist trope to paint an ugly false portrait of Houston icon Bun B. In their counter suit they alleged “Patsy and BJ were dumbfounded, hurt, angry, and scared given Bun B’s connections and the nature of the allegations.” The attempt to portray Mr. Freeman as a gangster and a thug that the Vivares were afraid of is directly contradicted by Patsy Vivares’ own words in their text communications about the theft and dissolution of their partnership “I also want you to know that I knew and felt the respect you had for me and I was always proud of that, so I never wanted to ruin it bc I was humbled at the fact that of all the people in the world you could have worked on a food concept with, you chose us.”
“The claim that Mr. Freeman stole money was first made in the Vivares’ response to our lawsuit. It is analogous to an unfaithful partner who accuses their innocent spouse of cheating after being caught red handed. Bun B stole nothing. We do know that Patsy Vivares misappropriated Trill Burgers funds because she admitted in writing that she did it. We do not know how much more of Trill Burgers monies the Vivares misappropriated because the Vivares never provided their former partners with requested documentation.
While the Vivares’ conduct was reprehensible it pales in comparison to the conduct of her lawyers Mr. Aziz and Mr. Beard who employed a racist trope to paint an ugly false portrait of Houston icon Bun B. In their counter suit they alleged “Patsy and BJ were dumbfounded, hurt, angry, and scared given Bun B’s connections and the nature of the allegations.” The attempt to portray Mr. Freeman as a gangster and a thug that the Vivares were afraid of is directly contradicted by Patsy Vivares’ own words in their text communications about the theft and dissolution of their partnership “I also want you to know that I knew and felt the respect you had for me and I was always proud of that, so I never wanted to ruin it bc I was humbled at the fact that of all the people in the world you could have worked on a food concept with, you chose us.”
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.