BATON ROUGE, La. – A Louisiana commercial sign installation company claims a competitor is engaged in a “fraudulent kickback scheme” that is hurting its business.
Plaintiff TTA Services LLC, doing business as Thunderbolt Signs, filed its lawsuit April 2 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
The Baton Rouge-based company claims the defendant, Deep South Signs LLC in Prairieville, Louisiana, is owned and controlled by someone “that has a history” with TTA.
Morgan Descant also is named in TTA’s 24-page complaint.
“Deep South Signs has historically bid on the same projects as the plaintiff, and it has now come to light that Deep South Signs is bribing a key employee of at least one national sign company in order to gain the business from that national sign company,” the complaint states.
TTA was formed by Gene Bagot in 2017. It was rebranded as Thunderbolt Signs in May 2022.
According to its filing, TTA is a commercial sign installation company that as part of its business submits bid quotes to national sign companies for installation of the national company’s customers.
“National sign companies utilize companies like plaintiff as subcontractors to complete the installations in geographic areas where the national companies cannot complete the installations themselves,” the filing explains.
“Plaintiff has been performing these services for nearly ten years. For many years, plaintiff was consistently successful in bid quotes to national sign companies in the State of Louisiana and throughout the Gulf South.”
TTA says it has performed work in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.
It argues that Deep South Signs has secured “numerous” contracts that would have otherwise been awarded to TTA. It claims Deep South Signs has done so through the “influence of the key employee with whom it is paying bribes or kickbacks.”
“This fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair practice has deprived plaintiff and the other competitors potentially millions of dollars of projects over the last several years and has raised costs for the national sign company’s customers,” TTA’s complaint states. “Immediate injunctive relief is necessary to prevent this fraudulent conduct and level the competitive playing field.
“Thereafter, defendants should be held accountable to pay plaintiff the damages it has sustained.”
According to its complaint, TTA and Morgan Signs LLC entered into an asset purchase agreement on Nov. 13, 2017 under which all of the assets of Morgan Signs were to be sold and transferred to TTA. The transaction closed March 2018.
As part of the agreement, Descant agreed to remain as a paid consultant to TTA for two years after the sale.
As a consultant for TTA, Descant determined installation methods for numerous jobs, supervised crews, and directed work activities. Descant also agreed not to conduct any separate and independent commercial sign operations business for a two-year period, TTA claims.
At the end of the two-year consultancy period, Descant signed an extension on the agreement not to compete Feb. 20, 2020, and agreed to stay on as a consultant for two more years.
“However, unbeknownst to Plaintiff, Morgan Descant formed the company that would become Deep South Signs LLC, a commercial sign business, on or about October 29, 2019,” TTA’s lawsuit states.
Descant formally left TTA on or about Sept. 29, 2021.
TTA brought litigation against Descant in the 19th Judicial District Court for the State of Louisiana in October 2021 seeking to enforce the non-compete agreement, among other things.
A settlement was reached in September 2023 with TTA and its principals and Descant.
TTA and Deep South continue to operate separate and distinct commercial sign operations, TTA notes in its complaint.
TTA seeks treble damages, actual damages, attorneys’ fees, pre- and post-judgment interest, and injunctive relief prohibiting continued racketeering activity and unfair trade practices.
New Orleans firm Couhig Partners LLC is representing TTA in the federal lawsuit.
