The Company, through its subsidiaries, leases the land and buildings for our five restaurants in South Africa, one restaurant in Nottingham, United Kingdom, thirty-five restaurants in the U.S., four restaurants in Australia, and one restaurant in Hungary. The South Africa leases are for five-year terms and the Hungary lease is for a ten-year term, and all of these leases include options to extend the terms. The terms for our U.S. restaurant leases vary from two to ten years and have options to extend. We lease some of our restaurant facilities under “triple net” leases that require us to pay minimum rent, real estate taxes, maintenance costs and insurance premiums and, in some instances, percentage rent based on sales in excess of specified amounts. We also lease our corporate office space in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rent obligations for are presented below:

Rent expense for the years ended December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014 was $4.1 million and $2.7 million respectively. Rent expense for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 for the Company’s restaurants was $4.1 million and $2.6 million, respectively, and is included in the “Restaurant operating expenses” of the Consolidated Statement of Operations. Rent expense for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 for the non-restaurants was $34 thousand and $26 thousand, and is included in the “General and administrative expense” of the Consolidated Statement of Operations.

On March 26, 2013, our South African operations received Notice of Motion filed in the Kwazulu-Natal High Court, Durban, Republic of South Africa, filed against Rolalor (PTY) LTD (“Rolalor”) and Labyrinth Trading 18 (PTY) LTD (“Labyrinth”) by Jennifer Catherine Mary Shaw (“Shaw”). Rolalor and Labyrinth were the original entities formed to operate the Johannesburg and Durban locations, respectively. On September 9, 2011, the assets and the then-disclosed liabilities of these entities were transferred to Tundraspex (PTY) LTD (“Tundraspex”) and Dimaflo (PTY) LTD (“Dimaflo”), respectively. The current entities, Tundraspex and Dimaflo are not parties in the lawsuit. Shaw is requesting that the Respondents, Rolalor and Labyrinth, be wound up in satisfaction of an alleged debt owed in the total amount of R4,082,636 (approximately $480,000). The two Notices were defended and argued in the High Court of South Africa (Durban) on January 31, 2014. Madam Justice Steryi dismissed the action with costs on May 5, 2014. Ms. Shaw has appealed this decision no liability has been reflected in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2015.

On January 28, 2016, our Just Fresh subsidiary was notified that it had been served with a copyright infringement complaint, Kevin Chelko Photography, Inc. f. JF Restaurants, LLC, Case No. 3:13-CV-60-GCM (W.D. N.C.). The claim was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina Charlotte Division and seeks unspecified damages related to the use of certain photographic assets allegedly in violation of the United States copyright laws. The Company has asserted numerous defenses in answer to the complaint and intends to defend itself fully and vigorously no liability has been reflected in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2015.

Prior to the Company’s acquisition of Little Big Burger, a class action lawsuit was filed in Oregon by certain current and former employees of Little Big Burger asserting that the former owners of Little Big Burger failed to compensate employees for overtime hours and also that an employee had been wrongfully terminated. The plaintiffs and defendants agreed to enter into a settlement agreement pursuant to which the former owners of Little Big Burger will pay a gross settlement of up to $675,000, inclusive of plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees of $225,000. This settlement was preliminarily approved by the court on February 2, 2016. The parties are proceeding with distributing the claim forms and notices of settlement to the class members and ultimately will disburse settlement payments to those who opt in.

In connection with our acquisition of Little Big Burger, the sellers agreed that the 1,619,646 shares of the Company’s common stock certain of the sellers received from the Company and an additional $200,000 in cash would be held in escrow until such time as the litigation was fully resolved. The Company does not expect to have to expend any funds related to the settlement as certain of the Sellers have agreed to retain the obligations and have set aside sufficient funds to cover the settlement. However, as the Company assumed all liabilities of Little Big Burger in the acquisition and would be required to fulfill the settlement if the sellers were unable or otherwise failed to fully fund the settlement, the Company has reflected the $675,000 settlement amount in accrued liabilities, with an offsetting asset in other current assets, in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2015.

From time to time, the Company may be involved in legal proceedings and claims that have arisen in the ordinary course of business. These actions, when ultimately concluded and settled, will not, in the opinion of management, have a material adverse effect upon the financial position, results of operations or cash flows of the company.