GALVESTON – A Mississippi company that owns and manages fitness clubs throughout Texas is suing a former employee of its Galveston franchise for reportedly misusing trade secrets, recent Galveston County District Court records show.
Fitness Group, LLC’s lawsuit, filed on Dec. 1 in the Galveston County 10th District Court, claims Galveston resident Jason Voges and his wife, Crystal, started Island Life Fitness, LLC after his employment with Anytime Fitness came to an end earlier this year.
The suit states that Jason Voges’ involvement in Island Life Fitness violated his employment agreement with the plaintiff, which previously employed Jason Voges as a manager.
According to court documents, Fitness Group permitted Jason Voges to seek employment at a competing gym located about 10 miles from one of its locations, but he did not request permission to start his own club “a mere 2.5 miles away from the very location he managed a few months prior.”
Island Life Fitness is purportedly scheduled to open this month. Several of the complainants’ current customers were interacting with the respondent business on the latter’s Facebook page, the original petition says.
Per the complaint, “Jason and Crystal's integral involvement in Island Life Fitness, a black letter breach of Jason's Covenant Not to Compete, is undisputed.”
Fitness Group applied for a temporary restraining order against the defendants and is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Attorney Evan Moeller of the law firm Adams and Reese LLP in Houston serves as the plaintiff’s lead counsel.
Galveston County 10th District Court Case No. 17-CV-1442