Lessons can be learned from studying litigation – this blog-post is reprographics- community related

Not long ago, I posted did a post on the blog about a lawsuit NRI (based in NYC and one of the largest reprographics enterprises in the U.S.) brought against an ex-employee, a lawsuit that NRI won.  That wasn’t the first time I put up a blog-post about litigation involving a reprographics company.  There’ve been others.   I do this sort of thing – occasionally post about litigation involving reprographics industry companies – in an effort to inform.  You can learn a lot about what not to do – and what to do – by reading documents associated with lawsuits.

Today, I’m going to mention a lawsuit that began sometime back in the middle of the last decade:

Western Blueprint vs. DocuCopy et. al. (et al – means “and others”)

While waiting for the SuperBowl to begin, I had some spare time to do Google-Search(ing), and I found two different documents related to the above lawsuit.  Although I do not have the original decision that was made in this case, I did find these documents:

The decision rendered by:  The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District – opinion filed April 29, 2011.  Link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81al4kFAU9JbGR2dVl5dlhmZ1U/view?usp=sharing

And, the decision rendered by:  The Supreme Court of Missouri – opinion filed April 17, 2012.  Link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81al4kFAU9JZHpPRDNrY1VSa1U/view?usp=sharing

Both of these documents are interesting reading material!

Essentially, the lower court found, and the court of appeals affirmed, and the supreme court affirmed (essentially, with the exception of one point) that Western Blue had been wronged.  Western was awarded a significant monetary judgment (and was awarded reimbursement of legal costs.)

That said, there’s no way for me to know of Western Blue ever collected the judgment (or reimbursement for legal costs) that the court ordered it be paid.  DocuCopy may have folded as result of it losing that lawsuit.  I found an old ReproMAX Network newsletter from 2010, and, in that newsletter, there was a note about DocuCopy of Columbia, MO, so, at that point, DocuCopy LLC (of Columbia, MO) was a ReproMAX member.  When I looked at ReproMAX’s web-site today, DocuCopy isn’t listed as a member. 

But, note that there is a current ReproMAX member in Columbia, MO – American Document Solutions (ADS) (not to be confused with ARC Document Solutions.)  What I found to be very interesting is that ADS was, apparently, formed in the fall of 2011, which was not long after the appeals court affirmed the lower court’s decision in the Western Blue vs. DocuCopy et al case.  Anyway, being the investigative sleuth that I am (NOT!), I visited the State of Missouri Corporations’ web-site, and, when I searched for American Document Solutions, the page that “reveals” the owner (of the business) said that the owner of ADS is an entity, based in Cheyenne, WY, called American Development Services Corp.  When I searched the State of Wyoming Corporations web-site, it does not have anything, at all, on American Development Services Corp (ADSC doesn’t exist according to the State of Wyoming.)  And, one other interesting thing I found:  the address of ADSC in Cheyenne was the former address of an outfit that was profiled in an article that appeared on Reuters - “Shell Games” – see file at this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81al4kFAU9JTndBMkg2NUpZSUU/view?usp=sharing

All that said, I’m not saying that American Document Solutions has any connection, at all, to DocuCopy LLC or to the former owners of DocuCopy.  Someone knows the answer to that. But, I certainly don’t. 

About American Document Solutions of Columbia, MO, they are, apparently, a thriving company, a ReproMAX member, and, apparently, they use Lynn Imaging’s ePlanroom service rather than a ReproMAX DFS (etc) ePlanroom service product. (‘splain that, Lucy!)

In any event, I hope you find the court-decision documents interesting and worthwhile reading.  Lessons to be learned.