Minority owners of a Yonkers coffee roaster are suing their relatives to dissolve the nearly century-old family business because their interests have allegedly been marginalized.
The lawsuit pits the Ranni family – James and Virginia, and Denise Schulman – against Dean and Charles Pialtos for control of P. Pascal Inc.
“The company is no longer being operated for its proper corporate purposes,” according to a complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court on Feb. 25, “but rather as an instrumentality for defendants’ personal enrichment and control.”
The current owners’ grandfather founded P. Pascal in 1929. In the 1950s it was moved from Manhattan to Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers.
The families changed the corporate structure about 30 years ago, the complaint states. Additional shares were allocated to the Pialtos family on the basis of their proficiency in the Greek language benefiting the company’s relationships with Greek-owned diners.
The consequence, the Ranni faction claims, is that they have been excluded from corporate governance and denied a portion of profits.
The Pialtoses have allegedly refused to provide financial records, tax returns, ledgers, and board meeting minutes, even though James Ranni was formally listed at various times as the company treasurer.
Based on a sampling of invoices from 2013 to 2015, obtained by the Rannis, according to the complaint, expenditures “support a strong inference of fraudulent conduct, systematic mismanagement, and diversion of corporate assets.”
For example, they claim that James Ranni’s wife, who never worked for the company, was placed on the payroll so that the company could increase the number of employees to qualify for Covid-19 pandemic relief funds.
The alleged falsification “created an unwarranted tax liability exceeding $20,000” for the Rannis.
In February 2026, according to the complaint, James Ranni and his son asked for a valuation of their shares for a proposed buyout. Dean Pialtos allegedly responded that no buyout would be considered.
The Rannis are accusing the Pialtoses of minority shareholder oppression, fraud, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duty.
They are demanding access to corporate records, an accounting by a neutral forensic accountant, judicial dissolution of the company, and unspecified monetary damages and restitution.
“There is no viable internal remedy, no functioning governance mechanism, and no reasonable prospect,” the complaint states, “that defendants will cease their misconduct absent judicial intervention.”
Dean Pialtos did not immediately respond to a request for his side of the story.
