DENVER — A Florida man, who formerly served as CEO of Aspen Corporation, has won an order from a judge allowing him to take to Miami federal court a lawsuit accusing him of violating his employment agreement.
According to the March 20 court filing by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, defendant Scott Gorman and Edjsource LLC, based in Florida, petitioned the Colorado court to move and dismiss a lawsuit filed against him, alleging he violated an employment agreement with the plaintiff Aspen Corporation Inc., which provides business process outsourcing (BPO).
In October 2016, Gorman sold assets of two companies to Aspen and entered into an employment agreement that made Gorman CEO of Aspen for a period of at least one year and also included "nondisclosure, non-competition and non-solicitation provisions," according to the court filing. While working for Aspen, Gorman worked out of Florida with some business visits to Colorado.
In April 2017, court documents show, the two parties agreed to an addendum to the employment agreement that included allowing Gorman "to entertain conducting paid services to other organizations and not have to be responsible for devotion of duties..." The plaintiff alleges Gorman "deceived" Aspen into believing he would work in areas that "did not compete with Aspen" and then began work for a company called EDJSource in Florida to do BPO work in competition with Aspen.
Gorman argued that the case should be dismissed or, alternatively, transferred due to lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue and "failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted."
District Judge Christine Arguello concluded "the court believes it is more efficient to begin by simply transferring the litigation to the Southern District of Florida, rather than dismissing it and effectively requiring the plaintiff to refile in the Southern District of Florida or another federal judicial district."
The court transferred the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.