If you’ve got a good memory, you’ll remember the name Scott Clearman. He’s the Houston attorney who filed a lawsuit alleging that Stream Energy was a pyramid scheme. Stream Energy’s founder, Rob Snyder, called Clearman a clown. Then Clearman got up in my grill because I happen to be friends with Snyder. Well, yesterday Stream announced that a copycat suit filed by Clearman in Georgia was dismissed by a federal judge. While Snyder refrained this time from calling Clearman himself a clown, he did call the lawsuit itself “clownish” in his release, which you can read in full after the jump:
DALLAS, May 13 /PRNewswire/ — Stream Energy Chairman Rob Snyder announced today that a federal RICO lawsuit filed in Georgia last fall against the retail energy provider and its Ignite marketing arm on behalf of a purported class has been dismissed by the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Rome Division.
The Georgia case in question filed by The Clearman Law Firm during October 2009 was a “copycat” action that followed upon an almost-identical lawsuit in Texas notably dismissed by the Federal District Court at Houston during November 2009.
In his opinion released today, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining agreed with the earlier reasoning of the Southern District of Texas Federal court to the effect that former associates of the firm’s Ignite sales force cannot avoid prior agreements to resolve any disputes with Stream Energy or Ignite through arbitration proceedings.
“Judge Vining’s ruling ending this copycat case in Georgia further vindicates our contention that these clownish lawsuits promoted by The Clearman Law Firm were utterly baseless from the outset,” Stream Energy Chairman Rob Snyder said. “The use of direct sales for customer gathering business models has proven time and again to be completely ethical, legitimate and legal. Accordingly, today’s decision effectively ending the nuisance attacks of professional class action lawyers is a victory for honest business owners against those who would manipulate our legal system for windfall personal profit. We are glad to put these illegitimate matters behind us so that we can focus upon the continued growth of our business as well as providing excellent service and competitive rates to our customers.”
