Water treatment company sues former employees

FORT COLLINS — A Loveland home water treatment company has filed a lawsuit against multiple former employees who, the case alleges, formed competing companies while employed and stole customer records, customer leads and commercial property.

Home Water Solutions LLC is a Loveland company located at 4204 N. Garfield Ave. It sells and installs “high-end residential water softening products,” according to language of the lawsuit. It’s market includes Denver and the Front Range.

The lawsuit claims that former employees Lanney Ogletree, Joseph Patrick Deeb, Elizabeth Amy Berry-Ogletree, Alexander Golden, William Gieseler, Landon McGill and Sara Morales James conspired to misappropriate customer lists and other proprietary information to compete against the company.

The lawsuit alleges that Purewater Plumbing and Water Purification LLC, based at 1617 Crestridge Drive in Loveland, and Bandit H20 Heaters LLC, which lists a Denver post office box, were formed by certain employees while still employed by Home Water Solutions.

The lawsuit alleges that the former employees had access to the customer database and also to databases that provided leads of potential future customers. They diverted that information from Home Water and marked certain records as “done” or “dead” to limit their usage by Home Water, according to the lawsuit.

Home Water also alleges that the defendants misappropriated commercial property and sold it to benefit their new companies.

Two owners of Purewater Plumbing, Joseph Patrick Deeb and Lanney Ogletree, returned BizWest’s calls seeking comment. Neither was aware of the lawsuit. 

When told of the allegations, Ogletree said “there’s no truth to that.”

Deeb said Purewater was formed so that its founders could engage in a side hustle. He said he did plumbing work for his wife’s employer on some rental properties and needed to form a company in order to pull permits. He said Home Water was aware of that work. “It had nothing to do with Home Water,” he said.

“He [the owner of Home Water] will be able to prove nothing because it didn’t happen; we were fiercely against that [taking business from the former employer.]”

The lawsuit seeks treble damages, to be determined at trial. 

The case is Home Water Solutions LLC v. Lanney Ogletree, Joseph Patrick Deeb, Elizabeth Amy Berry-Ogletree, Alexander Golden, William Gieseler, Landon McGill, Sara Morales James, Purewater Plumbing and Water Purification LLC and Bandit H2O Heaters LLC, case number 2022cv30118, which is filed in Larimer County District Court.

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