A jury trial is now scheduled for next July in the contentious family lawsuit pitting Tammy Darvish against her father and two half-brothers, who she says cut her out of a promised ownership stake in the family’s Darcars auto dealership centered on the Washington, DC, area.
The lawsuit filed by Tammy Darvish could always be settled out of court prior to the July 11 trial date. But the latest court filings show that Tammy Darvish’s father, John Sr., and her half-brothers, John Jr. and Jamie, are not willing to concede to her request for a one-third ownership of the car company that claims more than $1 billion in annual sales.
In her lawsuit filed January 9, Tammy Darvish, 51, claims her father had verbally promised her one-third of the company since the late 1990s as long as she stayed with the company.
John Darvish Sr., who came to the United States from Iran to attend college more than half a century ago, is now 79 and suffers from Parkinson’s disease, according to the complaint.
Tammy Darvish contends that her half-brothers conspired against her to take control of the company. In March 2014, John Darvish Jr., 42, was named CEO of Darcars by the elder Darvish while Jamie, 39, was named chief operating officer.
Tammy Darvish said she spoke with her father about the succession planning process and was told he still planned to give her one-third of the company. But then he informed Tammy she had been cut out of the family business.
According to the complaint, he told her that John Jr. and Jamie were threatening to quit so he made a deal with them to keep them with the company.
In July, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg wrote that attorneys representing Tammy Darvish provided enough evidence that an oral contract between Tammy Darvish and her father may have existed, allowing the case to move forward into the discovery process. Greenberg wrote that John Darvish Sr.’s alleged promise to give his daughter one-third of the company represented a promised bonus in return for future work and that it doesn’t matter if it was oral or written.
“[Tammy Darvish’s] bonus in this case was partial ownership and control of Darcars,” Greenberg wrote. “It was a supplementary agreement, aside from her regular employment contract.”