OTOY vs. Moore

For 16 months, from June 23, 2011 to October 10, 2012, the company OTOY fought me in court for quitting my job with them. All the while they threatened to sue whoever employed me. As a result I went 16 months without any income whatsoever. They hired the law firm Lavely & Singer to fight me in court. This occurred within a year after I graduated college with a hefty amount of student loans. As a result of the stress from work and from the lawsuit I developed an arrhythmic heart beat and attended several physician, hospital, and chiropracty appointments, all with no money or insurance to cover my costs. California Unemployment wouldn't even give me money. They claimed I still had a job to go back to, even if my ex-employer was breaking the law in keeping me from gainful employment.

OTOY had initially sought me out to work for them. They misrepresented the job. They lied to me about the contracts. They told me to quit. Then they sued me for quitting. I had only worked 7 months with them. The company had already existed for over a decade. They stated, in writing, that they would only stop if I would return to work. They fought me in court for 16 months and waited until a week before the trial before dropping the case.

Their first attempt to justify their lawsuit was to accuse me of stealing valuable company intellectual property when I left. They immediately stopped pursuing this avenue when they realized I didn't even possess a computer. Their next attempt was to accuse me of having made advances towards the company president, and that I had decided to leave after feeling dejected by her. They stopped pursuing this when discovery revealed documented conversations between my friends and myself of my own concern that the company president was hitting on me, and how it was affecting the work atmosphere and my job security. When they had nothing better to accuse me of they interrogated me on my Christian faith, claiming that I might divulge company secrets because God might ask me to do so. They also accused me of applying for work after I left -- not with companies that did compete with them -- but rather with companies that could eventually compete with them. You can find this in the deposition transcript and the settlement conference statement.

The end of the ordeal left me completely penniless and with no assets of value. I fell behind on my student loans, health bills, and credit card payments. My credit score was ruined.

In 2013 the IRS contacted me a few months after the lawsuit. They said I had forgot to pay taxes on $300,000 in unclaimed income. This value was near equal to the amount OTOY paid in court costs, according to the judge. The IRS said they got this information from a 1099 that claimed to be filed from Chenoweth Law. Chenoweth Law is the law firm that represented me for the first month of the trial. They were the only parties involved in this trial that had ever represented me. To boot, Chenoweth Law never had a copy of my SSN, so it could not have filed the 1099. The 1099 said the money was from court settlements, however court settlements are not necessary to be declared on 1099s. Chenoweth Law also had no such records of any 1099, nor had they paid me any money from any court settlements. After discussing my situation and the story of OTOY with the IRS, they quickly dismissed the 1099 as fradulent and ceased their request to tax me for $300,000 of income. Despite this, they made no further efforts to track down the origin of the fradulent 1099.

In 2015 to boot, even after the lawsuit dust settled, and after the IRS tax fraud dust settled, I get a letter in the mail claiming that OTOY owes me $167.55. One hundred whole dollars. That almost makes up for the years of unemployment (without being able to collect unemployment benefits), the health issues, the lawsuit, the damaged it has done to my reputation and to my life as a whole. All I have to do is get in touch with one of OTOY's accountants or something to collect the money. What could possibly go wrong there?

Even a decade later I am still feeling the chilling effects of this lawsuit.

Here is the story of my six month stay at OTOY, and their subsequent 16 month lawsuit against me to try to force me to work for them:
The Story

Here are documents pertaining to the story:
2010.09.06 Charlie Wallace's recruitment email
2010.11.09 My first contract with OTOY
2011.03.01 My second contract with OTOY
2011.03.01 My second contract with OTOY - Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement
2011.05.17 My resignation letter
2011.05.26 OTOY's response to my resignation
2011.06.23 The lawsuit OTOY filed against me
2011.07.14 My retained lawyer's first response to the lawsuit
2011.07.15 OTOY's lawyers reply
2011.08.03 My retained lawyer's initial attempt to draft a settlement with OTOY
2011.09.14 OTOY denying me more time for a cross complaint after my retainer fee expired
2011.09.23 OTOY's first settlement draft, sent to me while I am pro-se
2011.09.28 My answer to the summons, filed pro-se
2011.10.12 OTOY notice that I attend a deposition in LA -- 1000 miles away -- with only one week's notice
2011.10.17 OTOY's request for admissions
2011.10.17 OTOY's first set of special interrogatories
2011.10.17 OTOY's form interrogatories - general
2011.10.17 OTOY's form interrogatories - employment law
2011.10.28 OTOY's amended notice of deposition
2011.11.09 Deposition transcript
2011.11.16 My first response to OTOY's written requests
2011.11.23 OTOY's response to my first of written requests
2011.11.30 My second response to request for admissions
2011.11.30 My second response to first set of special interrogatories
2011.11.30 My second response to form interrogatories - generic
2011.11.30 My second response to form interrogatories - employment law
2011.12.16 OTOY's second settlement draft
2012.02.09 OTOY's delay in sending my 2011 tax information
2012.02.29 OTOY's third settlement draft
2012.04.05 Court-appointed mediation
2012.04.24 My mediation brief
2012.07.17 OTOY's fourth settlement draft
2012.09.13 Pretrial notice
2012.10.05 OTOY's settlement conference statement

- Exhibit A is the deposition
- Exhibit B is the second contract
- Exhibit C is the second contract's Proprietery Information and Inventions Agreement
- Exhibit D is the request for admissions
- Exhibit E is the first set of special interrogatories
- Exhibit F
- Exhibit G

2013.06.17 IRS letter stating I had $300,000 of unclaimed income
2013.07.02 Chenoweth Law letter stating they never filed such a 1099
2015.02.06 OTOY still owes me money
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