Attorney K Todd Wallace successfully moves federal court case from
Louisiana to Client Home State of Texas
U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found
that individual living and working in Texas does not have sufficient minimum
contacts with Louisiana
New
Orleans, LA (August 2018) - The law firm Wallace Meyaski LLC announced today
that attorney Kenneth Todd Wallace was able to successfully
move a federal court case to his client’s home state of Texas. Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana
ordered that this case (Security Data Supply, LLC
et al v. Nortek Security and Control, LLC et al) be transferred to the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Comments
K. Todd Wallace: “This order is of crucial importance in this case in that the
Court properly concluded that it does not have personal jurisdiction over an
individual client who lives and works in another state. Instead, to continue a
lawsuit against him, it must be pursued in his home state of Texas.”
In this case, Plaintiffs Security Data Supply,
LLC (“SDS”), and its franchise locations, brought claims for antitrust and
price discrimination violations and violations of state laws in Louisiana,
Texas, and California. While SDS is a wholesale distributor of electronic
security systems and sells these systems through franchise retail locations,
SDS filed antitrust and price discrimination claims against Defendants Nortek
Security and Control (“Nortek”), Wave Electronics, Inc. (“Wave”), and Mr. Earnest
Bernard. Nortek is a manufacturer of electronic security systems; Wave is a
wholesale distributor of electronic security systems in competition with while
E.B. is a former sales representative.
SDS and Wave sell Nortek products in direct
competition with each other. SDS alleges
that while E.B. was employed at Nortek, he provided Wave with preferential
pricing on Nortek products to the exclusion of Wave’s competitors. SDS further alleges
that Nortek sold identical products to SDS and Wave but intentionally
discriminated in price, providing a lower price to Wave through a “Four Star
Program,” a type of rebate program. SDS believes that this program allowed Wave
to sell Nortek products at a lower price than SDS could purchase them. SDS also
alleges that Nortek management was aware of this preferential pricing scheme
and allowed it to continue long after E.B. left the company. The defedants,
including E.B., has denied these unfounded allegations throughout the
litigation. SDS alleges that they have been been injured and SDS has lost at
least 59 clients and $9.5 million per year. Therefore, SDS bring claims against
Defendants for violations of the Robinson-Patman Act (“RPA”) (15 U.S.C. §13(a),
(c), (d), (f)), and state law claims of corporate bribery and violations of
state trade practices acts.
E.B sought to dismiss all claims against him,
in part, based upon a lack of personal jurisdiction in a Louisiana federal
court. Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the
Eastern District of Louisiana found that Mr. B. is an
individual residing in the state of Texas.
The Court noted that, since he was an employee of Nortek and worked in
Texas, therefore, the Eastern District of Louisiana does not have general
jurisdiction over him. Additionally, the Court found that Plaintiffs did not
allege in their complaint that Mr. B. traveled to, or acted in, or directed any
other actions within the state of Louisiana. Therefore, Mr. B. lacked
sufficient contacts with Louisiana that would allow the Louisiana Court to
exercise specific jurisdiction over him.
Mr. Wallace states, “as you can imagine we are
very pleased that the Court properly considered the arguments we presented that
Mr. B. lacks sufficient minimum contacts with Louisiana necessary to force a
non-resident to defend himself in another state. If this case is to continue,
Texas is the only appropriate venue.”
About K.
Todd Wallace, Attorney in New Orleans
Mr.
Wallace has nearly 20 years of experience in the legal and business professions
with established excellence in trial advocacy, negotiation, strategic and
initiative planning, employment law compliance, government relations, mergers
and acquisitions, and team building. He
received his Juris Doctor, cum laude,
from Loyola University College of Law, New Orleans, LA and while at Loyola, he
served as the Managing Editor of the Loyola
Law Review, and as a member of the William C. Vis International Commercial
Arbitration Team. Before law school, he received his Bachelor of Arts,
Political Science, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
The
underlying court case is at https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/louisiana/laedce/2:2017cv10578/204023/62/
*** K. Todd Wallace is an attorney at Wallace Meyaski in New Orleans. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the legal and business professions with established excellence in trial advocacy, negotiation, strategic and initiative planning, government relations, mergers and acquisitions, and team building. See http://www.walmey.com/our-attorneys/k-todd-wallace/
