Bradley Cave

Our client, a public hospital, was sued by an orthopedic surgeon for gender discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause based on the hospital’s purchase of a competing orthopedic practice owned by male surgeons. Brad persuaded the district court to dismiss the surgeon’s claim prior to discovery, and successfully defended an appeal to the Tenth Circuit which affirmed the dismissal, finding the surgeon had failed to plead a viable claim of gender discrimination and the individual hospital board members had qualified immunity. Morman v. Campbell County Memorial Hospital, 632 Fed.Appx. 927 (10th Cir. 2015).

In three recent matters, Brad negotiated the resolution of a variety of claims asserted by former senior executives. Each matter involved motivated opposing counsel, highly-compensated executives with a grudge, and allegations of retaliation, illegality, or other malfeasance by the client’s other senior officers or board members.

After a client’s female vice president became embroiled in a romantic relationship with a direct-report male human resources officer, Brad counseled the client through an independent investigation to determine and implement the appropriate employment actions. He then helped the client to favorably resolve related claims before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Brad defended our hospital client and several of its senior executives when they were sued by a former chief medical officer. The former employee claimed the executives defamed him and conspired to terminate him to prevent him from disclosing alleged wrongdoing in the hiring of another employee. The doctor claimed he was entitled to $38 million in damages. After many months of contentious litigation, Brad obtained complete summary judgment against all the doctor’s claims, and obtained a judgment against the doctor for breaching a release of claims he had signed after the termination of his employment.

Brad recently represented a Wyoming city to pursue the termination of employment of a shift captain in the city’s fire department. After the city’s civil service commission decided to accept the city’s recommendation and terminate the captain’s employment, Brad successfully defended the decision on appeal, resulting in an opinion affirming the dismissal from the Wyoming Supreme Court. City of Rawlins v. Schofield, 2022 WY 103, 515 P.3d 1068 (Wyo. 2022).

Brad obtained the dismissal of a defamation and abuse of process lawsuit against our psychologist client arising from our client’s report of questionable activities by another psychologist to the state’s psychology licensing board.

Brad advised our client on a particularly sensitive case after the female executive assistant to the CEO quit and filed suit for alleged defamation and emotional distress resulting from rumors circulating throughout the organization, and among the board of directors, that she had an affair with the CEO. Brad deftly managed the case through mediation and achieved a favorable settlement for the exact amount he predicted at the outset of the dispute.

Our client was the general contractor for three large wind farm projects. The civil earthwork subcontractor defaulted on payments to several of its suppliers and ultimately walked off the projects prior to completion. We defended over a dozen separate lien actions filed against the projects, prosecuted claims, and defended counterclaims in litigation with the civil subcontractor. After a two-week jury trial in October 2011, a verdict in excess of $1 million was returned for our client.

Our client’s right to operate its off-track betting facilities in a Wyoming county was terminated when the county commission adopted a resolution to reverse its prior approval of our client’s operations in favor of another company. Brad led the team that successfully argued that the Wyoming statute governing our client’s business did not give the county commission the power to reverse its prior approval. Following a favorable district court decision, Brad led the briefing team to defend the ruling on appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Campbell Cty. Bd. of Comm'rs v. Wyo. Horse Racing, LLC, 2023 WY 10, 523 P.3d 901 (Wyo. 2023).

Brad filed suit against an insurance agent who violated her covenant not to solicit the clients of our client, her former employer. After a day-long hearing, the trial court entered an injunction prohibiting further solicitation of clients. Following the entry of the injunction, Brad negotiated a settlement that enforced the client’s contractual rights, and resolved – with no money changing hands - a separate lawsuit brought by another former agent who was working with the first agent.

Brad recently represented a national company in an action against one of its former sales executives who started a competing enterprise, and began soliciting our client’s customers. He persuaded the federal court to enter a preliminary injunction against the former employee and his new business. Then, he negotiated a settlement requiring the former employee to pay a portion of our client’s attorneys’ fees and consent to an injunction for twice the duration of the court’s original injunction.