Contractor removes lien against Haitian restaurant owner as court fight continues

BROOKLYN — One of the legal threats facing Haitian restaurant owner Eva Volmar has been removed after the contractor who filed a $234,000 mechanic’s lien withdrew it, narrowing a dispute that continues to threaten the future of her Brooklyn restaurant.

Ed Mishan removed the lien on Monday, July 6, five days after The Haitian Times published its investigation into Volmar’s restaurant, La Cachette du Coin, which included the mechanic’s lien and her ongoing eviction case against her landlord.

In a phone interview that day, Mishan said he never wanted Volmar to lose her business.

“I always cared about Eva from day one,” Mishan said. “I’m not looking for someone to lose their livelihood for a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”

The lien put Volmar in violation of her lease, giving her landlord grounds for eviction. 

Volmar said she believes the story prompted Mishan to reconsider.

“He couldn’t sleep after reading it,” she said.

Mishan also said the dispute “was not a racial thing” and that he believed the earlier story gave the disagreement an unfair racial dimension.

“Why would the landlord sign a lease with a minority tenant only to push them out?” Mishan said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me as a human being. And I’m not even talking about as a landlord, just as a human being.”

He said filing the lien “was just business,” not personal.

Since the article was published, Volmar said she has had support from both city officials and community advocates.

Kitty Chan, deputy commissioner at the Department of  Small Business Services, contacted Volmar after reading the story and later met with her at La Cachette du Coin to discuss resources available to support her business.

Activist Imani Henry of Equality for Flatbush, who was quoted in the original story, also met with Volmar this week. 

“It’s not happenstance,” Henry said in an earlier interview with The Haitian Times. “It is a concerted effort to push out and displace largely black and brown tenants, homeowners, small businesses from New York City.”

His organization plans to hold a rally outside La Cachette du Coin on July 21.

“It has been a dream,” Volmar said. “Everyone read that article.”

Despite the lien’s removal, Volmar’s legal dispute with her landlord continues. 

Landlord Nigel Boyden has filed a motion to dismiss her counterclaim in the eviction case. Volmar is scheduled to return to housing court on July 23, with another hearing set for Aug. 25.

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