OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen filed a countersuit Tuesday to the State of Oklahoma’s lawsuit filed in April. In that lawsuit, they allege the corporate by no means let the state examine their monetary data and that they “violated promises and obligations” and are in breach of contract.
The properly over 50-page countersuit from Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen entails 5 claims. All of them level at Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration, Matt Pinnell and the State Tourism Department, and so they didn’t maintain again.
The countersuit fires again on the state’s lawsuit towards them. It acknowledged that it “merely seeks to pass the blame onto Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen for in-state political bickering and sensationalism.” The go well with added that “the state will happily throw its private business partners under the bus at the slightest hint of negative political sensationalism and rhetoric.”
It provides 5 claims towards the state and particulars the corporate’s dealings with them. One of them consists of enterprise disparagement and defamation. It claims the state “deliberately, willfully, and maliciously engaged in a smear campaign against Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen.”
The lawsuit stated it was late 2019 when the state approached the Swadley household to show “neglected, dilapidated and frankly embarrassing restaurants at the state parks into first class facilities.”
It additionally states the household was initially reluctant, having not executed a challenge of that measurement earlier than. But they jumped in because the state insisted, saying it could be an excellent factor as a result of “the state would absorb all construction costs, provide management fees, absorb operational losses and provide advertising.”
The photos within the lawsuit present the state park buildings properly earlier than development started. The lawsuit claims that Gov. Kevin Stitt, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and the Tourism Department had been all conscious of the issues there. The lawsuit added a number of pages of textual content messages from prime state officers claiming micromanagement of the challenge right down to the “smallest detail,” like what can be positioned on the restaurant tables.
It additionally included an image of Stitt with Brent Swadley at one of the eating places.
“I do not have any sort of relationship with Brent Swadley. I don’t know Brent Swadley,” Stitt stated at a news convention previously, asserting the state’s lawsuit towards Swadley’s firm.
Lastly, the lawsuit argues that it wasn’t till all of the work was executed and the “cost became a political hot potato…” for the state that they “decided to pass the buck onto Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen.”
The firm can be suing a former worker and whistleblower. They declare he’s a disgruntled former worker who was sued by a associated Swadley’s entity final yr.
We reached out to the governor’s workplace for remark, however we didn’t get a response.
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