Judy Pasquini, the pizza matriarch, was enjoying a dream trip to Italy last year for her daughter’s wedding when she learned some surprising and disturbing news. Her son, Tony, texted her that her newly married daughter, Melinda, had filed suit in federal court against Tony.

Judy and Melinda avoided discussion of the case for the rest of the trip, but when Judy returned to the U.S. and learned more about the suit, the implications became clear. A serious family fracture had occurred.

Since then, the feud has escalated in the family whose Pasquini’s Pizzeria chain has for decades been a popular destination for Denverites. The bitter legal battle over control of the Pasquini trade name pits brother against sister in a series of lawsuits.

It has forced family members to choose sides, cost $2 million in legal fees and judgments so far and destroyed plans to build Pasquini’s into a big franchise business.

The case also has involved one of Denver’s premier law firms, Faegre Baker Daniels, which is accused of malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty in a related lawsuit.

“This is the saddest thing in my life,” said Tony, 46, his voice breaking, in a recent interview at the Pasquini’s in Denver’s Highland neighborhood.

Melinda, 38, through an attorney, declined to comment for this report.

Judy Pasquini said the chain of events has devastated her emotionally and financially. She said she loves her daughter but is aligning herself with her son.

“I’m on the truth side,” Judy said.

Business and legal experts say the dispute serves as a lesson to be learned about the potential perils of multiple family members owning a business, and of attorneys representing their own families.

“Every family in business together runs the risk of ending up where they are,” said Kim Schneider Malek, a family-business counselor and adjunct professor of business at the University of Denver. “I have a strong belief that if emotions rule, it can be very destructive and costly.”

Pasquini’s Pizzeria once was a feel-good story of a family-owned pizza chain that started on a shoestring in 1986 with a $300 loan. Cash flow was so meager at first that the Pasquinis traded slices of pie for restaurant supplies.

The business grew in its original location at South Broadway and Louisiana Avenue. It expanded to the upstairs of the building, and still lines ran out the door.

In 1998, the family sold a license for other operators to open a Pasquini’s on East 17th Avenue.

No hints of a family breakdown existed in 2004 when Melinda bought out her brother’s interest in the South Broadway location.

Melinda was excited about owning and operating the restaurant where she had started working as a child. She was pleased that her $1.4 million buyout would allow Tony to pursue other business ventures.

“I thought I did a good thing,” Melinda is quoted as saying in court documents. “And I was also proud because everybody talks about family businesses and how things go bad, and I thought, ‘I did it.’ I got it all separated. We’re good. Now we can go forward and be a family.”

The root of conflict

But in later years, friction arose between Melinda and Tony. Disagreement devolved into the filing of lawsuits against each other. At issue primarily was who had the rights to the Pasquini’s name and trademark.

Melinda claims that the 2004 deal for the South Broadway restaurant gave her “the use of the name(s) ‘Pasquini’s Pizza’ or any variation thereof,” according to court documents.

That’s not the way Tony and Judy saw it.

“Never was there an understanding that Melinda owned the name,” said Judy, who continues to work alongside her son at Pasquini’s Pizzeria Inc., the owner of three Denver-area restaurants.

Tony said it was clear that the transaction with Melinda was not a sale of the name but only the license to use the name at the South Broadway location.

Melinda had stood by without complaint as Tony issued licenses to franchisees to open new restaurants using the Pasquini’s name in Highland, Lone Tree and the Denver Tech Center.

But when Tony and his mother said last year that they were opening a Pasquini’s in Cherry Creek, Melinda balked.

In October, she filed suit in U.S. District Court in Denver, claiming that Tony engaged in trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices.

The case is still pending, but Melinda won a temporary injunction forcing Tony to stop using the Pasquini’s name at 240 Milwaukee St. He since has renamed the restaurant “Tony P’s.”

Melinda also has filed for an injunction to stop Tony from using the family name on a restaurant scheduled to open next month at East 17th Avenue and Clarkson Street. No ruling has yet been issued for that injunction.

Tony’s problems include a 2010 lawsuit filed against him by franchisees Scott and Patrice Holtzer, who operated the Pasquini’s at 8101 E. Belleview Ave. in the Denver Tech Center.

The Holtzers listed a host of complaints focused on Tony violating terms of the franchise agreement. The Holtzers were awarded $800,000 in damages, which Tony says he is unable to pay. Tony has appealed the ruling.

Conflict of interest?

The most recent battle in the legal war erupted two weeks ago, when Tony sued Melinda and her law firm Faegre Baker Daniels.

The suit alleges that Melinda advised Tony to hire the firm for his franchising business but claims that Faegre represented him poorly in the lawsuit filed by the Holtzers.

When the relationship between Tony and Melinda began to fracture, Tony and his lawyers raised questions about Melinda’s and Faegre’s apparent conflict of interest, according to the malpractice suit. Faegre then dismissed Tony as a client. Tony alleges that Melinda then cooperated with the Holtzers in their action against him.

Melinda should never have steered Tony to her law firm, said Tony’s attorney, Eric Jon-sen.

“Had Faegre and Melinda Pasquini done their job and disclosed Melinda’s claim to ownership of the Pasquini name and Tony’s company as she alleged in her complaints, the Holtzer case never would have occurred,” Jonsen said. “It’s likely that some mutually acceptable agreement would have been worked out.”

Tony’s lawsuit against Faegre says that the firm’s conflict of interest and poor representation have led to damages and attorneys’ fees of more than $2 million and future losses of $5 million from Tony’s inability to launch the franchise business.

Faegre partner David Stark said the firm will have no comment until it files its response to the lawsuit.

With months or years of more legal wrangling likely, Judy Pasquini said she is still hopeful that family peace can be restored, even as she referred to Melinda’s lawsuit as “putting us through the cycle again.”

“I love my son, and I love my daughter,” she said, dabbing at her eyes. “Everything is going to be OK.”

Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp

Chronology of Pasquini’s

1986: Original restaurant opens at 1310 S. Broadway, now owned by Melinda Pasquini

1998: Pasquini’s opens at 1336 E. 17th Ave. under a license to other owners; now operates as Serioz Pizza

2006: Location at 2400 W. 32nd Ave. opens as a franchise, now owned by Tony Pasquini

2008: Location at 7431 Park Meadows Drive opens as a franchise, now owned by Tony Pasquini

2009: Location at 8101 E. Belleview Ave. opens as franchise; now operates as Fiocchi’s Pizzeria under non-Pasquini ownership

2012: Tony Pasquini opens Tony P’s, originally called Pasquini’s, at 240 Milwaukee St.; he is scheduled to open a location at 777 E. 17th Ave. next month, but an injunction has been sought to stop use of the Pasquini’s name

Famous family feuds

U-Haul: Fathering 12 children in a series of marriages was a recipe for disaster for founder L.S. Shoen. The offspring publicly fought, including a violent scuffle at a shareholders meeting. The murder of the wife of one of the sons in Telluride in 1990 turned out not to be related to the feud, as originally suspected.

Boyer Brothers Coffee: Sons Dennis and Sam Boyer of Denver squared off in the 1990s against their father, Bill, over the rights to the Boyer name after the boys went their separate ways in the coffee business. After an exchange of lawsuits, the sons agreed to rename their company “Brothers Gourmet Coffees.”

The Pritzker family: Famous for its ownership of the Hyatt hotel chain, the Pritzker family fell victim to feuding after the death of patriarch Jay Pritzke in 1999. Resolution occurred after an agreement to divide the family’s $15 billion fortune and sell a $1 billion stake in Hyatt hotels to Goldman Sachs.