MORGANTOWN — Three civil suits involving WVU Health System and Mon Health cardiologists who left their respective employers to work for the other have been resolved.
They have been settled, said Mon Health President and CEO David Goldberg on Tuesday, and “we continue to work collaboratively for the betterment of the community.”
Goldberg and WVU Health System President and CEO Albert Wright said they would comment more fully on the cases at a joint meeting scheduled at The Dominion Post offices next week to talk about their collaborative efforts.
One case is in federal court and was dismissed on Friday.
The other two are in Monongalia County Circuit Court. The docket sheets for those cases show they remain open but Goldberg said they also were settled.
Angela Knopf, spokeswoman for WVU Health System and University Health Associates, which manages the clinical practices of faculty at WVU’s School of Medicine, acknowledged that Wright would comment further next week but declined to discuss the current status of the two county suits, saying, “We don’t comment on settlement negotiations or agreements. “
The federal case is in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. In it, Monongalia County General Hospital Co., which does business as Mon Health Medical Center, sued Dr. John Lobban in May.
Lobban is an employee of WVU who practices at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute as a member of University Health Associates.
Mon Health alleged that when Lobban changed employers he breached his contract, lured away six other Mon Health employees and misappropriated Mon Health trade secrets in order to bring 400 of his Mon patients to WVU.
In June, Lobban filed a counterclaim alleging Mon Health breached the contract, thereby voiding any agreements between them.
The Dominion Post reported in November that Mon Health and WVU Medicine were in talks to settle the case.
In January, Mon Health, with agreement of UHA, moved the stay the case as it was nearing settlement. The judge agreed and the parties notified the court of the settlement on May 1. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice – meaning it’s over and the plaintiff can’t re-sue on the same claim – on Friday.
Both parties will bear their own costs.
The county suits were filed in November. In them, UHA sued Mon Health Medical Center and two cardiologists who left WVU for Mon Health.
Those suits alleged that Drs. Bradford E. Warden and Wissam Gharib breached their contracts by starting at Mon before the end of their designated non-compete periods and that Mon Health interfered with those contracts.
After the initial filings in November, neither case saw any court action.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
