No settlement will be allowed in a case of poaching that orthopedics rivals Biomet and Stryker are battling. A federal judge in Michigan shot down the settlement agreement on Tuesday, according to MassDevice.com.
“Over the past 2 weeks, Stryker uncovered an ill-conceived and long-planned scheme by Biomet, using Stryker representatives in both New York (Steitzer) and Louisiana (Ridgeway), to erode Stryker’s customer relationships and raid sales teams from Stryker’s Neuro Spine ENT business unit and craniomaxillofacial division. Complete with secret code words, Biomet’s scheme involved Ridgeway and Steitzer as proxies, while still Stryker employees [emphasis theirs], to intentionally damage Stryker and sabotage its ability to compete in a highly competitive marketplace,” according to the lawsuit.
Stryker sued orthopedics rival Biomet last year, accusing it of a scheme to poach reps and business from Stryker in Louisiana and New York. Christopher Ridgeway and Richard Steitzer allegedly conspired with Biomet in the scheme, according to the September 2013 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Michigan. Steitzer quit in June 2013 to work for Biomet; Stryker fired Ridgeway Sept. 10 of that year, according to the lawsuit, after discovering that he was allegedly running a pair of medical supply businesses on the side.
Source: MassDevice.com