---
title: "John Schnatter Sues Papa John’s"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/a3fe88fe-d37d-4611-8769-b792999bd616
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/john-schnatter-sues-papa-johns-2707296
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["Regulation & legal"]
published: 2018-07-27T16:11:26.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:53:03.569Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/fd65da27fb799ad5bf81628d05e55d8a3222.jpg
---

# John Schnatter Sues Papa John’s

**TL;DR:** John Schnatter, the founder and former CEO of Papa John's, has filed a lawsuit against the company over marketing and board access. The lawsuit seeks to allow Schnatter to inspect company documents to determine if the board breached their duty of care.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-07-27. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/john-schnatter-sues-papa-johns-2707296).*

## Story

The continuing saga of Papa John’s and John Schnatter opened a new chapter yesterday, when the exiled founder and former CEO filed a lawsuit against the pizza chain in a Delaware court.

The suit seeks to allow Schnatter access to inspect company documents to determine whether the board may have “acted without adequate information and breached their duty of care” or “planned this coup in advance,” according to the claim.

It was less than a month ago that Schnatter resigned from his role as chairman of the board of the company he founded. Since then, updates have occurred at a breathless pace. First, the company announced it would remove Schnatter from all of its marketing , then Schnatter said he regrets his decision to resign and accused the board of orchestrating his ouster without “apparently doing any investigation.”

This week, the franchise approved the extraordinary measure of a “poison pill” provision to prevent the former CEO from regaining control of the company by purchasing stock in the open market.

If this fight ever had a chance of wrapping up quietly, this lawsuit all but ensures it won’t.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Papa Johns (company)
- marketing (topic)
- lawsuit (topic)
- poison pill (topic)
- board access (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/john-schnatter-sues-papa-johns-2707296). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/a3fe88fe-d37d-4611-8769-b792999bd616).