Owners of two Boystown bars face claims they breached contract to sell their stock

Two men are suing the owners of two bars in Lakeview's Boystown area over claims they paid more than $60,000 for stock in the businesses, but never received it.

Sam Gordon and Ian Keiser filed a complaint Nov. 21 in Cook County Circuit Court against Jason Zilberbrand, Jordan Labinger and Calahan's Taverne & Grille Inc., an Illinois corporation that owns and operates Whiskey Trust tavern and Chloe's nightclub.

Zilberbrand and Labinger are shareholders of the corporation, according to the suit that states both of the establishments opened this past summer and are located in the North Halstead Street space formerly occupied by Spin nightclub.

Gordon and Keiser claim they entered into an oral contract with the defendants in June 2014, when they agreed to pay Zilberbrand and Labinger $62,500 in exchange for 10 percent of Labinger's stock in the corporation and 5 percent of Zilberbrand's stock.

The plaintiffs claim they paid the $62,500, but never received their stock in Calahan's or a refund as requested.

They seek damages of $62,500 and are represented by Vivek Jayaram of Jayaram Law Group in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court case number: 2014-CH-18815.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note that a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt and it represents only one side of the story.