The company providing solar power to St Joseph Schools in embroiled in a lawsuit alleging they interfered with a competitor during negotiations for a similar project in North Kansas City.
Brightergy LLC is being sued in US court by Energy Consumption Auditing Services (ECAS).
According to the Kansas City Business Journal, the lawsuit claims Brightergy officials spread misinformation by E-mail after receiving a copy of an ECAS spreadsheet on its proposal to the city. That information led city officials in North Kansas City to become concerned about moving forward with the plan.
“Defendant has pursued a scheme to spread numerous false and misleading representations relating to the quality, legality, legitimacy, ethics, and character of ECAS, along with its services and products,” the petition said. “Most egregiously, defendant’s attacks state or imply that ECAS is engaged in deception and other improper practices.”
The petition alleges that Public Works Director Pat Hawver emailed a spreadsheet summarizing the ECAS proposal to a Brightergy employee after that employee had been in contact with Hawver. A second Brightergy employee then allegedly forwarded the email to someone else, noting, “It is clear that the numbers ECASKC is presenting is way off, and borderline fraudulent…Deals like this, if they go through give the industry a black eye as the City will undoubtedly be upset (if not sue) when these numbers don’t shake out.”
The email with the added comments was forwarded one more time, this time to City Councilman Mark Conarroe, City Administrator Matt Shatto and Hawver.
The lawsuit includes charges of interference with a contract, interference with a prospective business advantage or relationship, federal unfair competition, business defamation, libel and injurious falsehood.
It seeks injunctive relief to prevent Brightergy from “interfering in any way with ECAS’ performance of its contractual relationship with NKC,” along with compensatory damages of more than $75,000 and punitive damages.