HOUSTON – A Houston document retrieval company claims a former employee recruited other employees to work for a competitor and developed competing software in violation of his employment contract.
Record Solutions LLC and Depo Holdings LLC filed a complaint on Jan. 14 in Harris County District Court against Merten Rice, Drew Murr and Tyler Stillwell; alleging breach of employment agreement and tortious interference with contract.
In 2018, Record Solutions, a subsidiary of Depo Holdings, acquired the record collection business Legal Monkeys LLC, where the defendants were employed; the complaint stated. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants then came to work for Record Solutions, with Rice signing an employment agreement that prohibited him from working for a records retrieval business anywhere in the U.S. for two years after his employment. They also claim the agreement prohibited Rice from soliciting any employees from Records Solutions during the two-year period.
The plaintiffs further claim that when Rice left their company in February of 2020, he and the other defendants planned to form their own records retrieval company and recruit Record Solutions employees. They also allege Rice violated his agreement by working for a direct competitor, Client Connect, while developing his own records retrieval software along with the other defendants.
The plaintiffs seek monetary relief and all other just relief. They are represented by Christina Ponig and Ryan Wooten of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in Houston.
Harris County District Court case number 2021-02370