Alpharetta company hit with $58M verdict in fight over consultant’s arrest
An Alpharetta company that makes medical adhesive products has been hit with a $58 million jury verdict in a yearslong fight with a Stanford professor of emergency medicine.
A dozen jurors in Fulton County State Court found Wednesday that Chemence and three of its executives, including the company’s top lawyer, had dragged professor James Quinn through years of frivolous litigation and had him arrested during a deposition at the company’s headquarters.
Quinn, who lives in California, was awarded $12 million in compensation, $5 million in attorney fees and litigation costs and $41 million in damages designed to punish Chemence and deter others.
“He’s extremely thankful. He feels vindicated,” Steve Lowry, Quinn’s lead attorney in the case, said about him Thursday. “He knows he never did anything wrong.”
Chemence and its lawyers in the case did not respond Thursday to inquiries about the verdict.
Lowry said the verdict could be the largest of its kind in a malicious arrest case in Georgia. He said he’ll seek another couple of million dollars in interest based on Chemence’s previous rejection of an offer to settle the case before trial.
The verdict comes 10 years after Quinn won $8.6 million against Chemence in a jury trial in a separate but related case in federal court in Atlanta. The doctor and the company have been duking it out in court for 15 years.
Quinn, a pioneer in medical adhesive technology, was a consultant for Chemence in the company’s early years from 2004 through 2011, case records show. Their relationship soured over the amount of commission owed to Quinn from the sales of products he helped to develop, leading to Chemence suing the doctor in federal court in April 2011.
It was during the federal litigation, in September 2014, that Quinn was arrested by Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office deputies during a deposition at Chemence’s headquarters in Alpharetta. He was booked into the Forsyth County jail and bonded out several hours later, records show.
Quinn was accused by the company of stealing its confidential information after he forwarded 41 emails from his Chemence account to his personal Gmail account. The doctor maintained that he had permission to forward the emails and did so to preserve evidence in the federal court case, under advice from his lawyers.
Court records show that the criminal case against Quinn was dropped for lack of evidence in 2015.
The following year, a federal jury in Atlanta found in Quinn’s favor in the commission fight with Chemence, awarding the doctor $8.6 million. The federal jury found Quinn did not misappropriate Chemence’s trade secrets and that the company had acted in bad faith in accusing him of doing so.
After winning the federal case, Quinn sued Chemence and several of its executives and lawyers in Fulton County in 2016. He claimed they gave false and misleading information to law enforcement to get him arrested.
“By the time Dr. Quinn managed to clear his name and have the warrants dismissed by the district attorney, Dr. Quinn had suffered damages, including but not limited to extreme emotional distress and restraint on his ability to visit family and to travel,” the doctor’s lawsuit said.
In case filings, Chemence and its executives said Quinn did not have authority to forward the emails, which contained “product formulas and other proprietary and confidential information.” They said their concerns about Quinn possibly breaking the law were warranted and that an investigator found probable cause for Quinn’s arrest on theft and computer trespass charges.
Quinn’s civil case in Fulton County went to trial at the end of March against Chemence; its president and CEO, Hugh Cooke; vice president of business development, Peter Battisti; and CFO, secretary and general counsel, Robert Wilson.
On Wednesday, the jurors held the defendants liable for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious arrest and civil conspiracy, finding they acted with bad faith and intent to cause harm.
Lowry said two other lawyers sued by Quinn for their involvement in the conspiracy to have him arrested confidentially settled the claims against them before trial.
About the Author
Journalist Rosie Manins is a legal affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
