FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2025 filing
Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh litigation history
What Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. Item 3 lists the material legal actions a franchisor must report; Item 4 covers bankruptcy. This is the franchisor's own disclosure, not a court record, and not legal advice.
Items 3 (litigation) & 4 (bankruptcy) at a glance
What the filing discloses
- Cases disclosed
- 1
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest settlement, franchisor's own cases
- Not extracted
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- Disclosed
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2025
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
No current litigation for Garbanzo Franchising Co., LLC. Predecessor had one arbitration/action (Topper/GARBOCA, LLC) settled with $50,000 + $30,000 payments.
Disclosed in the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 4: bankruptcy
Predecessor Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill Franchising, LLC filed Chapter 11 on August 12, 2020 in the Eastern District of Missouri (Case No. 20-43964-399). Current franchisor acquired predecessor's assets December 21, 2020. Case closed February 19, 2021.
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Prior litigation and arbitration with founder David Topper over development obligations and unit closures suggests franchisor-franchisee relationship strain
The verdict grade is FranchiseVerdict's editorial assessment across SBA loan performance, unit growth, revenue and disclosure signals. It is not investment advice.
Before you weigh a lawsuit
How to read Item 3
A franchisor must disclose pending actions and any material civil action involving the franchise relationship, plus convictions or civil judgments for fraud, unfair or deceptive practices, or franchise-law violations, going back ten years. A case the franchisor brought against a franchisee counts too. Item 3 does not include every dispute: settled claims below the materiality line and matters resolved in private arbitration can be absent.
Questions worth asking current and former franchisees, using the contact list in Item 20:
- Were you, or anyone you know in the system, party to a dispute with the franchisor?
- Was it resolved by settlement, arbitration or a court, and on what terms?
- Has the number of disputes gone up or down since you signed?