Today is a good day to talk about medical professionals filing lawsuits. Read my Legal Medicine blog to find out what I mean.
One such lawsuit was filed in Winchester recently. According to the NVDaily – “The Eye Place at Creekside Ltd. and Michael S. Krimigis have filed suit in Winchester Circuit Court against Ron Comer, who operates the Pearle Vision Center franchise” alleging numerous business torts.
Tort 1: Breach of medical confidentiality
Claim 2 (sort of a tort): HIPPA violations
Claim 3: Trespassing / theft of the client list
Claim 4: Tortuous interference of business expectancy.
This is a fun case. Well, not fun for the parties but fun to talk about because it is so ridiculous. Did someone really take a client list, trespass and steal it? If the good doctor can prove that, it will be hard to defend.
Now, what I really think happened is an employee took the list and sold it to the Pearl Vision guy. If that could be proved, the employee would also be facing a pretty fierce lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of Va. Trade Secret Act, tortuous interference of business expectancy etc.
Yes Virginians, the rumors are true. You are not allowed to take a client list that does not belong to you. You are not allowed to send letters to those clients trying to get their business.
Business Torts are fun – as long as you are not the one defending them.