Installers Suing Prime TV
BY MATTHEW MORIARTY: Staff Writer
A group of companies that used to install satellite television systems for Prime TV in Southern Pines filed a lawsuit against the company Friday in Moore County District Court.
The plaintiffs are installers from all over the country. The lawsuit names Prime TV, Gatelinx, Dish TV Now, Prime Installs and David and Annette Hagen as defendants.
The installers contend that Prime TV owes them money. The companies are seeking damages in amounts ranging from $1,000 to more than $10,000, as well as punitive damages that would be determined by a jury.
Richard “Trey” Yelverton III, in-house attorney for the defendants, said this is a problem that Prime TV had been “actively working to resolve.” But now that the suit has been filed, the courts will decide, he said.
The problem stems from a dispute between Prime TV and DirecTV. Prime TV sold DirecTV systems out of its offices in Southern Pines for about seven years. But DirecTV abruptly terminated its contract with Prime TV in late March, alleging that Prime TV was also selling its top competitor, Dish Network.
Prime TV was located within the Gatelinx office building off U.S. 1, which was once a Winn Dixie grocery store. There is a Dish Network provider, called Dish TV Now, in that office building, but Yelverton said it is a separate entity and has a separate corporate structure.
After losing it contract with DirecTV, Gatelinx converted the call center over to selling only Dish Network.
DirecTV also accused Prime TV of poor business practices. Many customers filed complaints with the N.C. Attorney General’s office and the Better Business Bureau about not getting rebates they said they were promised.
Prime TV countered by saying that DirecTV used successful dealers to learn the best ways to sell the product and then forced them out of business, in effect cutting out the middle man.
As a result, Prime TV laid off a number of employees and closed its customer service, call center and warehouse. While that was happening, companies that had been contracted to install satellite systems were not being paid.
DirecTV offered a way for installers to recoup some of their money (at Prime TV’s suggestion, Yelverton said). But the installers who filed the suit want all of the money they say they are owed, plus damages. They are alleging that their money is going to finance Gatelinx and Dish TV Now operations.
The plaintiffs are OneTec of Saint Peters, Miss.; Swartzel Installations Technologies of Riverside, Calif.; Orbit Rhythms of Central City, Colo.; Platinum Distribution Installations of Hughson, Ga.; JGK Satellite Installation Services of Clarkston, Wash.; SAT Systems of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.; Moore Telecom of Egg Harbor City, N.J.; Digital Home Solutions of Kearney, N.J.; Comm-Tech of Staten Island, N.Y.; Coastal Satellite Services of Georgetown, S.C.; Northeast Communications of Ledyard, Conn.; Northern Star Installations of Neptune Beach, Fla.; NTI Satellite of Montpelier, Ind.; Satellite Plus of Inman, S.C.; Securetel of Defiance, Miss.; Telecom Technologies of La Center, Kent.; and Prime Star of Foster, R.I.
The group of companies hired Southern Pines attorney Jodie Foyles to represent them.
The suit claims that even though Prime TV, Prime Installs, Gatelinx and Dish TV Now are separate legal entities, they have acted in concert by exchanging information, equipment, contracts, employees and money.
The complaint says that installers received letters from all of the defendants involving the same subjects.
Foyles said phone numbers and extensions that used to be Prime TV numbers now go to Dish TV Now, but still reach the same employees.
Yelverton said that he isn’t aware of anything like that.
The complaint says Prime TV broke its contract by claiming that the Hagens are transferring assets, equipment, money and personnel from Prime TV and Prime Installs to Dish TV Now. The lawsuit also alleges that the Hagens perpetrated fraud against the installers.
“(The defendants) did knowingly make false representations to the plaintiffs in order to induce (them) to provide services and goods,” the complaint says, “… while knowing or reasonably should have known that they would be unable to pay.”
The complaint says the defendants are liquidating assets or transferring them from Prime TV, Prime Installs and Gatelinx to Dish TV Now. The liquidation prevents them from paying the installers.
Yelverton said none of the defendant companies is liquidating.
“Any allegations of fraud are completely unfounded,” he said.
Installers received checks that bounced because of insufficient funds or checks that had payment stopped on them. The installers claim that the defendants knew that they had insufficient funds.
Yelverton blames DirecTV for not giving PrimeTV TV enough notice prior to the termination of the contract.
The lawsuit seeks a court order “piercing the corporate veil” of Prime TV, Prime Installs, Gatelinx and Dish TV Now.
“David and Annette Hagen have complete domination over all four companies’ finances, policies and business practices,” the lawsuit says. “All four companies in essence operate with one mind and in such an interchangeable fashion that it is often difficult to tell one from the other. … David Hagen and Annette Hagen have excessively fragmented the companies they controlled into separate corporations in order to avoid being held liable for the companies’ wrong doings.”
The installers are seeking the amount they are owed and punitive damages. They want the court to hold the Hagens personally responsible.
Installers Suing Prime TV
There are 3 replies to this message
