ST. LOUIS – A federal judge dismissed the claims two chiropractors made that a consulting business failed to deliver on promises after separating the claims because the individual damages didn't meet statutory requirements.
U.S. District Court Judge John A. Ross for the Eastern District of Missouri on March 27 dismissed a case brought by Texas Premier of Cedar Park, Texas, and Thrive of Rochester, Minn. The clinics and their owners, Kyle Meers and Nicholas J. Pratt, alleged DJR Consulting Services of St. Charlies, Mo., and its owner, Dennis Rodden, in December 2018.
“This Court concludes that the plaintiffs' claims do not arise from the same series of transactions or occurrences,” Judge Ross said in his order. “As such, the Court will grant the defendants' requests to separate the claims. Further, because the value of the plaintiffs' individual claims does not meet the jurisdictional amount requirement, the Court will dismiss the case.”
The plaintiffs' claim alleged they entered into separate contracts with the defendant Rodden for $54,750, to provide coaching services.
The promised services included assistance in recruiting medical doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists; access to experienced healthcare attorneys, accountants, and tax advisers. It also included unlimited access to senior coaches specializing in office management, personnel, insurance, coding, billing, credentialing, compliance, marketing and practice growth and development.
Meers and Pratt alleged that DJR did not deliver on the majority of its promises and failed to transform their businesses in any meaningful way as promised.
“Rather than being available around the clock with personalized advice and coaching, Meers asserted that DJR' s senior coaches and staff spent a combined six hours on the phone in the nine months following his purchase,” Judge Ross' order stated.
Promised customized manuals and guides came late or not at all, and those that were delivered often had other clients' business names on them suggesting they were cut-and-pasted from documents, the complaint alleged.
In February 2017 the chiropractors demanded their money back and they allege that Rodden refused this request.
The plaintiffs filed suit in the Circuit Court of St. Charles County.
“The defendant moved to separate the cases, arguing that the plaintiffs' cases were too dissimilar to try together without prejudicing the defendants," the court document said. “The State Court agreed and separated the cases. The plaintiffs then voluntarily dismissed the case and filed this suit in Federal Court.”
Judge Ross said in his opinion and order that while the two complaints from the two chiropractors are nearly identical, they both arose out of a series of different transactions.
“Nothing in the plaintiffs' complaint leads the Court to believe their experiences were linked in any way other than that they both contracted with DJR,” Judge Ross said.
After Judge Ross granted a request of the defendant to separate the claims, he found that on their own individually they did not “meet the jurisdictional amount requirement.”
The plaintiffs complaints were then dismissed.
U.S. District Court for Missouri Eastern District case number 4: 18-cv-02065-JAR