A former partner at Eggnatz, Lopatin & Pascucci is suing his former partners over firm finances and the dissolution of the civil litigation, class action and personal injury firm they formed.

Former name partner Benjamin Lopatin, who ran the firm's office in the Bay Area in California, filed suit last week against his former partners and Nova Southeastern University law school classmates Joshua Eggnatz and Michael Pascucci, who ran the firm's office in Davie and handled the firm's bookkeeping.

The partners formed the firm in 2014 with a written agreement to split expenses and revenue 50-50 between the offices in Davie and San Francisco, according to Lopatin's attorney, Justin Kaplan of Kaplan Young & Moll Parron in Miami. In time, Eggnatz and Pascucci wanted to split the revenue evenly among the three partners.

Kaplan said those discussions to split revenue evenly were never agreed upon or written into a contract. But Eggnatz and Pascucci's lawyer, Steven Mitchel, founder of Mitchel Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale, said Lopatin agreed and was aware of the distribution changes. The partners also disagree as to when and who first announced they wanted to split the firm.

Kaplan said when Lopatin realized he was not receiving 50 percent from certain settlements, he raised the issue with his partners, and at first tried to work things out with his friends, Kaplan said.

Then, according to Kaplan, Lopatin told his partners in September that he wanted to disassociate himself from the firm — a 90-day process — but the partners dissolved the firm right away, ignoring their contracted 90-day disassociation period. During that time, Eggnatz and Pascucci filed potentially valuable lawsuits that should have been part of the previous partnership, Kaplan said.

Kaplan said based on the information he has, the partners owe Lopatin at least $200,000.

“We anticipate it being a lot higher once my client gets hold of all the documentation and engages in a real accounting,” Kaplan said.

Lopatin's suit alleges two counts each of breach of contract and fiduciary duty, and demands accounting and inspection of books and records.

Mitchel called it “a malicious claim.”

“Ben Lopatin has been paid every single penny that he is owed,” Mitchel said.

Mitchel said his clients were doing the brunt of the legal practice work and had given Lopatin notice in the summer that they no longer wished to practice with him. He said Lopatin responded with claims about owning more of the firm than they owned.

“We have at all times disclosed and accounted for all cases,” Mitchel said. “We've been more than fair to the point of being generous to do the right thing. Nothing during that 90-day period was done in the dark.”