The clinical testing laboratory filed suit in U.S. District Court in Newark against Sam Ruta of Yardley, Pa., a departing sales manager, and Matt Carey of Fairfield, Conn., a departing salesman. Both men were hired in 2003 and recently gave notice.
The suit asks the court to order the two men to allow Bio-Reference to remove its business information from their computers.
"Bio-Reference has no basis for this suit," said Steve Kramarsky, a lawyer for Ruta and Carey. "These are two guys who left their jobs, which they're obviously allowed to do."
Kramarsky said the two men offered to return all of Bio-Reference's information from their computers but refused to allow the company to "go on a fishing expedition through their personal computers."
He said both men have turned their computers and BlackBerrys over to him, and have no access to the information on them.
The suit says Ruta and Carey signed contracts that limit their work competing with Bio-Reference after their departure.
Though the two men have not told the company of their career plans, Bio-Reference said in its suit that it believes they plan to work with a competing lab. It cited a meeting Carey and Ruta had with Schuyler Newman, an owner of Orange Regional Pathology in Middletown, N.Y.
A lawyer for Bio-Reference did not return a call seeking comment.
E-mail: lynn@northjersey.com
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