The partnership that has slung loaded dogs since April 1991 at the 25th Street Shopping Center is being dissolved, with the business' sale set for March 2.
A fast-food partnership that has fed the Easton area since 1991, with roots going back even further, is coming to a bitter end.
Jimmy's Hot Dogs, in the 25th Street Shopping Center in Palmer Township, is due to be sold at auction March 2.
Attorney Ron Shipman is conducting the sale at his 318 Spring Garden St. office in Easton, as the court-appointed receiver to resolve a 9-year-old dispute between Jimmy's 50-50 owners Frank Bounoutas and John Apostolopoulos.
The sale includes the name, Jimmy's Hot Dogs; all equipment and the $2,108-a-month lease for the 720-square-foot shop under agreement through May 2017.
"It's without reserve, meaning there's no minimum price," Shipman said Wednesday. "It's going to be a final auction. This business is going to be sold."
Jimmy's Hot Dogs, in the 25th Street Shopping Center in Palmer Township, is seen Feb. 17, 2016. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) Hot dogs loaded with onions and a dill pickle wedge continued Wednesday to fly out of the strip-mall shop, sandwiched between NY Nails and Petco.
Staff behind the counter declined to comment on the sale or the dispute, as did Robert Glazer, attorney for Apostolopoulos; his son, James Apostolopoulos; and daughter-in-law, Heather Apostolopoulos.
Bounoutas' counsel, Robert Freedberg and Donald Souders Jr., could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bounoutas and Apostolopoulos formed their partnership April 18, 1991, about the time they opened in Palmer Township, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Both previously worked at the original Jim's Doggie Stand in Union Square, Phillipsburg, where Jimmy Makris had opened in 1910 after starting out with a pushcart in Easton in 1908.
Bounoutas said in a Dec. 30, 2011, filing in Northampton County Court he and John Apostolopoulos had been at an impasse in their business relationship since about January 2007. Unable to negotiate an end to the partnership, Bounoutas on June 16, 2015, petitioned to have the court dissolve their relationship. To this end, county Judge Jennifer Sletvold appointed Shipman as receiver last Aug. 11.
Both families are expected to bid on purchasing 100 percent of the business at next month's auction, Shipman has said, according to court records. Whoever buys Jimmy's is expected to to take possession and continue operating "within a short period," estimated at about seven to 10 days, he has said.
The Apostolopoulos family had a valuation of the business done that, as of Dec. 31, 2012, put a 50 percent ownership in Jimmy's as worth $40,000. Bounoutas said that's a low-ball figure compared to dissolving the partnership and selling 100 percent of the assets, according to court records.
Each partner blames the other's family for the falling out.
Counsel for John Apostolopoulos, his son and his son's wife assert "personal discussion and disagreement" surfaced "most particularly" between Bounoutas' wife, Polyxemi Bounoutas, and John Apostolopoulos and Apostolopoulos' wife, Bessie Apostolopoulos.
"Despite all this acrimony, during all these years, the partnership had operated as a successful business, and has been able to support the families of both parties," counsel for the Apostolopoulos family wrote in a court filing last July 9.
The filing, submitted when John Apostolopoulos was 87, asserts the partners had an "oral understanding" that James Apostolopoulos would take over ownership of his father's half of the business upon John Apostolopoulos' death.
Frank Bounoutas responded last July 15 that had never been agreed upon, and that he "consistently refused to participate in a partnership with James Apostolopoulos." Bounoutas also wanted Heather Apostolopoulos barred from the premises.
James Apostolopoulos worked at Jimmy's since it opened along 25th Street (Route 248), court records say, but on days when he wouldn't show up for work, Heather Apostolopoulos would fill in for him, unpaid.
Bounoutas in the Dec. 30, 2011, filing asserted Heather Apostolopoulos would yell and curse at, threaten and make derogatory comments toward Bounoutas in the presence of customers; act in a rude and obnoxious manner toward customers; and refuse "simple customer requests ... such as making change, separating hot dogs (and) providing tap water, all in violation of the business' normal practices and policies."
On one occasion, around June 30, 2011, Heather Apostolopoulos repeatedly pointed a finger in Bounoutas' "face in close proximity to his eye ... causing fear for his safety and well-being," Bounoutas said in the filing. Later, Heather and James Apostolopoulos cornered Bounoutas and threatened to "physically throw him off the premises and take away his ownership" in Jimmy's, records say.
Upon Sletvold's appointment of Shipman last August to dissolve the partnership, counsel for Bounoutas indicated he has continued to carry on the business while Apostolopoulos, too ill to work, has continued to collect 50 percent of proceeds.
"This case has gone on long enough," Freedberg and Souders wrote.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.