PHILADELPHIA – The attorney for a plaintiff who claims he was shorted on commission checks by his former employer has withdrawn his appearance.
Philadelphia-based attorney David J. Averett motioned to withdraw from representing his client, city resident Craig Meehan, on July 7. Averett cited a continued lack of contact through several avenues with Meehan, Meehan’s lack of attendance at several of their scheduled meetings, conflict over legal strategy and Meehan allegedly being unable to compensate Averett for his legal services.
The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas approved Averett’s motion on Tuesday.
Meehan filed suit in April 2014 against his former employer, T&D Materials and Manufacturing in Philadelphia, along with its president Min Yu and office manager Weihong Fu, both of Newtown Square. Meehan claimed he was deprived of the full amounts of his commission payments and other benefits, per his employment agreement.
Meehan, a marketing and e-commerce professional by trade, came to work for T&D in 2012.
Meehan was originally hired by T&D as a salesperson, earning an annual base salary of $35,000 and being provided travel expense reimbursement, two weeks’ vacation time, enrollment in group health insurance after three months’ time, a 5 to 20 percent bonus at the end of each year for meeting mandatory quota, and a 1.5 percent commission on all sales – paid within 30 days of the customer’s payment for the sale.
The suit claims Meehan single-handedly created and enhanced T&D’s online presence, an area Meehan claims was lacking in T&D’s business model when he first arrived at the company.
Within two months, Meehan was promoted to being the company’s vice president, and commenced a new employment agreement, he claims. According to the terms of the new agreement, Meehan would receive a percentage of gross revenues with compensation, supervise a sales team and receive 1 percent of all sales they completed in addition to 1 percent of all website sales.
At this point, Meehan alleged he received commission checks from Yu and Fu, but not for the full amount guaranteed by his employment agreement. When he raised the issue to Yu and Fu’s attention, they allegedly refused to provide the outstanding balance to Meehan and he departed T&D.
Upon his departure, Meehan claimed he left a copy of the employment agreement and personal files he collected while working at T&D in his desk drawer. Despite repeated requests, Meehan alleges the defendants have not returned those materials to him.
Meehan alleges Yu diverted business that T&D was bringing in to another company he was involved with in China. Meehan further claimed Yu diverted sales leads to himself, and kept Meehan from learning the true amount of business T&D was attracting.
Meehan filed suit against the defendants for violation of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment & Collection Law, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets in violation of the Pennsylvania Uniform Trade Secrets Act, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, a request for accounting, conversion, civil conspiracy and a request for declaratory judgment.
The plaintiff is seeking a sum in excess of $50,000, plus costs, attorney’s fees and other relief in this case.
The defendants are represented by Kathryn V. Chandless, in Newtown Square.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 140305291
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com