July 31, 2024
An advocacy group that supports robust enforcement of antitrust laws has urged the Fourth Circuit to revive a case from former naval engineers accusing military shipbuilders of using secret “no-poach” agreements to avoid competing for workers.
The Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws filed an amicus brief on Tuesday arguing that a federal court in Virginia was wrong to toss the case after finding the claims fell outside the four-year statute of limitations for alleged antitrust violations.
The brief said that in order to reach that conclusion, the court had to ignore that the workers allege the companies had separate agreements to not hire employees from each other and to keep the pact secret.
“The district court’s order thwarts the policy justifications behind the fraudulent concealment doctrine,” the brief said. “Defendants’ making secret an agreement that is not ‘inherently deceptive’ is an affirmative act of concealment under the law of this circuit.”
A representative for the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws told Law360 in a statement on Wednesday that the district court kept the naval engineers from having their day in court as a result of the companies concealing their agreement.
“The district court’s decision misinterpreted the law and imposed a burden on plaintiffs — who, pre-discovery, necessarily have limited access to the facts — that, if adopted, would limit the ability of private parties to bring antitrust lawsuits, especially for labor market cases, where it is particularly easy for defendants to hide their violations,” the statement said.
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The proposed class is represented by Elaine T. Byszewski, Shana E. Scarlett, Rio S. Pierce, Sarah Dupree, Steve W. Berman and Kevin K. Green of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, George F. Farah, Nicholas Jackson and Simon Wiener of Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC, Brent W. Johnson, Steven J. Toll, Robert W. Cobbs, Alison S. Deich, Zachary R. Glubiak and Sabrina S. Merold of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Brian D. Clark, Stephen J. Teti, Arielle S. Wagner and Eura Chang of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP and Candice J. Enders and Julia R. McGrath of Berger Montague PC.