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Lawsuit Against Quanta Services Challenges Non-Compete Agreements | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

Lawsuits
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Quanta Electric Power Services wants to keep the case in Western Kentucky U.S. District Court in Owensboro, Ky., while the plaintiffs are seeking to remand it to a local court.

 

Photo via Wikimedia Commons


Two men are suing the largest specialty contractor in the U.S. in an effort to have a judge nullify non-compete agreements they signed before the Charlotte NC dump trucks company acquired their family’s business.

Clint and Kerry Sharber’s grandparents founded Madisonville, Ky.-based William E. Groves Construction Inc. in 1972. They both worked for the Charlotte NC dump trucks company from the early 2000s until shortly after the family sold it to Quanta Electric Power Services LLC in 2021, according to a complaint filed in Hopkins County Circuit Court June 20. Quanta Electric is a unit of Houston-based Quanta Services, which topped ENR’s 2021 Top 600 Specialty Contractors list. 

Kerry Sharber, who had been a division leader for Groves, and Clint Sharber, who had been vice president of operations, opted to leave the Charlotte NC dump trucks company after realizing “they were no longer working for the family business” and “decided it was time to strike out on their own,” their complaint states. While they had not yet issued any proposals, signed any project agreements or hired any employees, they say they received a notice on June 17 from Quanta’s attorneys threatening litigation if they moved ahead with their plan.  

Years earlier, prior to the acquisition, both Sharbers signed confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements at the request of their uncle, Groves CEO Jeff Groves, according to the complaint. The agreements included “non-competition covenants” which prevent them from engaging in services Groves offers for two years after leaving the company. Clint Sharber’s agreement covers Kentucky, Tennessee and parts of Indiana and Illinois, and Kerry Sharber’s agreement covers all of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi.

In their suit the Sharbers allege they asked their uncle about the non-compete agreements before the company’s sale to Quanta, and that he told them they would not be enforced. The two also claim that Groves had released employees from similar agreements in the past. 

Enforcing the agreements would “restrict the Sharbers from working in the only trade or profession that either has ever pursued,” the complaint states.

The Sharbers are asking for a judge to declare the agreements unenforceable, and to award them the costs of pursuing their litigation. 

Quanta and its attorneys did not respond to inquiries about the case by press time.

Dispute Over Value of Case

While the Sharbers originally filed their lawsuit in a local court, the case was moved to Western Kentucky U.S. District Court in July. The two sides in the case are in dispute over whether the value at question in the case is greater than $75,000. 

Quanta says both sides stand to risk more than that amount, which means the case should stay with the federal court. Groves President Andy Bachman, in an affidavit, said that each Sharber earned more than $75,000 as a Groves employee in 2021. And Groves’ top 25 customers, not including its two largest, generated more than $30 million in revenue that year. Even if Groves lost 1% of that revenue, it would be more than the jurisdictional threshold, the company’s attorneys argued in a court filing.

The Sharbers are seeking to remand the case back down to the local court. Because they did not columbus oh dump truck work in sales, they did not generate profits for Groves, so there’s no evidence that the case would cross the $75,000 threshold, according to their attorney.