US Health Group Inc. (USHG) is seeking a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction against Physicians Choice Laboratory Services (PCLS) and some of its employees, alleging that they “attempted to steal, usurp, redirect, and hijack the plaintiff’s toxicology business, their money, hundreds of urine samples, customer lists, and trade secrets,” according to documents filed in a Dallas District Court. PCLS and USHG once worked together in an arrangement where a third lab, a client of USHG, US Toxicology (UST), performed toxicology screening tests and then referred testing to PCLS for confirmation testing when necessary. The arrangement was severed in August 2013 by PCLS but the lab made it clear, according to the court petition, that it would continue to honor its contractual and fiduciary duties under the original agreement. However, some of PCLS’s employees had a different idea and, according to the court documents, are alleged to have committed a variety of forms of interference, defamation, and deception on a daily basis. The petition alleges, among other things, the defendant’s employees fabricated various stories about the plaintiff in an effort to sabotage its business operations. PCLS allegedly told USHG clients that USHG was bankrupt, going out of business, and under […]
US Health Group Inc. (USHG) is seeking a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction against Physicians Choice Laboratory Services (PCLS) and some of its employees, alleging that they “attempted to steal, usurp, redirect, and hijack the plaintiff’s toxicology business, their money, hundreds of urine samples, customer lists, and trade secrets,” according to documents filed in a Dallas District Court.
PCLS and USHG once worked together in an arrangement where a third lab, a client of USHG, US Toxicology (UST), performed toxicology screening tests and then referred testing to PCLS for confirmation testing when necessary. The arrangement was severed in August 2013 by PCLS but the lab made it clear, according to the court petition, that it would continue to honor its contractual and fiduciary duties under the original agreement. However, some of PCLS’s employees had a different idea and, according to the court documents, are alleged to have committed a variety of forms of interference, defamation, and deception on a daily basis.
The petition alleges, among other things, the defendant’s employees fabricated various stories about the plaintiff in an effort to sabotage its business operations. PCLS allegedly told USHG clients that USHG was bankrupt, going out of business, and under investigation by law enforcement. The complaint alleges that PCLS destroyed USHG referral scripts, interfered with urine sample collections, stole USHG’s marketing material and replaced it with their own, replaced contact information for USHG with its own information, and made false statements about USHG. Later additions to the petition include complaints against True Fit Medical LLC and US Specialty Labs Inc.
The temporary restraining order and a temporary injunction have been granted to USHG and UST, but they are also seeking a jury trial to recover $1 million in lost business, attorneys’ fees, legal fees, and pre- and post-judgment interest.
Black Eye for the Laboratory Industry
This kind of public infighting and unprofessional activity can do harm to all laboratories, particularly those involved in drug testing, in the eyes of the public and government regulators who oversee the laboratory industry.
Takeaway: A laboratory should be able to control the actions of its employees, but in a case like this where unprofessional and unscrupulous activity allegedly is involved and encouraged by the company, a legal recourse may be the only avenue available to resolve the issues.
