Jamie Keating and Pezold company fight over name Rivermill Event Center — or is it Centre?

The dispute between two large Columbus catering companies over the use of the name “Rivermill Event Center” has spilled into Muscogee County Superior Court.

Valley Hospitality Services LLC, which falls under the umbrella of Pezold Management, asked the court for an injunction to stop Jamie Keating Culinary, Inc. from using the name “Rivermill Event Centre” because it is creating confusion with customers and those attending functions at the 3715 First Ave. facility that changed management on Feb. 1.

Keating Culinary and its owner, chef Jamie Keating, filed a counterclaim, asking the judge to halt Valley Hospitality from using the name. When Keating ran the facility from 2006 until early this year, it operated as Rivermill Event Centre. When Valley Hospitality assumed management, they called it Rivermill Event Center, slightly changing the spelling of the last word.

After a two-day hearing on May 9 and 10, Judge Ron Mullins denied the Valley Hospitality request for an emergency injunction to prohibit Keating from using the name Rivermill Event Centre. In denying Keating’s request to stop Valley Hospitality from using the name Rivermill Event Center, Mullins wrote, “defendant’s request for a permanent injunction is not yet ripe and will be decided at a later time.”

Mullins’ ruling was issued late Friday.

To receive a preliminary injunction before a trial, the plaintiffs were required to show four elements:

• A substantial likelihood of success on the case’s merits.

• That they will suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.

• The harm the plaintiffs will suffer without an injunction is greater than the harm the defendant will suffer if the plaintiffs’ injunction is grante.

• And the injunction will not be against the public interest.

Based on the hearing evidence, Valley Hospitality showed the “possibility” of success on the merits, but not the “likelihood,” the judge wrote.

“Now, it will just become a regular old case and we will see how it develops from here,” said Wade H. “Trip” Tomlinson, Keating’s attorney. “We are grateful for the court’s time and the ruling.”

Keating’s attorneys argued that he did business as Jamie Keating Culinary and Rivermill Event Centre and he owned that name, even when he no longer had a lease to the venue. Valley Hospitality attorneys argued that Jamie Keating Culinary was the business, and the venue in which they currently operate is the Rivermill Event Center.

Attorneys for Valley Hospitality contend that their client is suffering harm every day Keating is allowed to use the name. They pointed to confusing social media advertising and Google searches.

In one wedding at Rivermill Event Center this spring, the pastor was late because his GPS sent him to Front Avenue, where Keating operates his restaurant Epic. In other instances, brides and organizations have used the wrong address on wedding and event invitations after a Google search for Rivermill Event Center gave them the address of Keating’s restaurant.

Keating contends he has operated jointly as Jamie Keating Culinary and Rivermill Event Centre since 2006 when he started the business at the site of the old Bibb Mill, two miles north of downtown.

Valley Hospitality attorney Morris Mullin of the Columbus firm Waldrep, Mullin & Callahan said he and his client were disappointed in the ruling.

“It is also disappointing for the people in the public who are using the Rivermill Event Center and winding up at the Eagle & Phenix Mill downtown, where there is no event center,” Mullin said. “The people who are looking for the Rivermill Event Center are the ones who are getting lost. It’s not the ones looking for Mr. Keating. I am confident in the end we will get the ruling we are asking for.”

Tomlinson said Keating is only using a name he has the right to use.

“To the extent there is confusion, it is their use of a similar mark or name that my client has the right to use,” said Tomlinson, with the Columbus firm Pope McGlamry.

Keating lost the lease to Rivermill Event Center last fall when he failed to exercise an automatic option to extend the lease for a year. There had been ongoing issues between Keating and the landlord, the Hospital Authority of Columbus, which owns the property and has long-term plans to building a retirement facility on it.

When Keating missed the extension deadline, the Hospital Authority reached an agreement with Valley Hospitality, which owns operates hotels, restaurants and a catering business.

Jamie Keating Culinary vacated the event center on Jan. 31 and Valley Hospitality assumed the management role the next day.

Hospital Authority President Frank Morast testified that Keating and those working for him damaged the facility when they vacated it. Under his lease, Keating had the right to take what he had put in the event center when he vacated, Morast said.

But the damage went deeper than that, according to Morast. Bathroom paper dispensers were ripped out of the walls, all of the building’s light bulbs were removed, plants in large pots were cut off at the base and tossed into the woods, exhaust fans were taken off the roof and the walls were scarred by magic markers, Morast said.

“I went down there to see it for myself because I couldn’t believe it when I was told about it,” Morast said.

Tomlinson and Valley Hospitality attorney David Helmick argued over the relevance of the evidence about the damage to the building.

“The condition of the property is not relevant to the name,” Tomlinson told the court.

Helmick countered, “It shows his intent and maliciousness.”

On Monday, Tomlinson said that evidence is not critical to the case.

“That is not relative to this case at all,” Tomlinson said. “This case is about who owns the service mark. That’s all. And if it does become about that, we will offer contrary evidence to what they presented.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Jamie Keating and Pezold company fight over name Rivermill Event Center — or is it Centre?."