When Vince Ryan takes office as Harris County attorney on Jan. 1, 2009, he won’t have a major employment suit to distract him. In February, Ryan sued his former employer, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson , alleging it didn’t pay him enough for using his political contacts to help the Austin-based firm land a number of lucrative accounts to collect delinquent taxes in the Houston area. [ See "Linebarger Goggan Request to Compel Arbitration Denied," Texas Lawyer , May 26, 2008, page 1. ] In Vincent R. Ryan Jr. aka Vince Ryan v. Linebarger Goggan Blair Sampson, he sought $7.5 million in actual damages for his work at the firm from around 1995 through 2006. Ryan also sought unspecified punitive damages from Linebarger Goggan and former partners Dale Linebarger of Austin and William King of Houston. The defendants denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim, alleging Ryan breached a confidentiality agreement and alleging he was attempting a “shakedown” for money. But on Oct. 27, a few days before Democrat Ryan was elected to the county office, the parties filed an Agreed Joint Non-Suit With Prejudice, which 55th District Judge Jeff Shadwick signed on Oct. 29. Ryan says the suit has settled, but he says terms are confidential. “I’m looking forward, not backward,” he says. A spokesman for the firm, Joe Householder, declines comment. Defense lawyer Andy Taylor , of Andy Taylor & Associates in Houston, and Linebarger and King, both retired from the firm, each did not return a telephone call seeking comment before presstime.
Scientist Sues A&M
In a suit against Texas A&M University System, several of its departments and employees, an Iraqi who claims he was a scientist in Saddam Hussein’s government alleges that A&M subjected him and his wife to a hostile work environment before firing them in 2007 for complaining about abuses. But the A&M defendants deny those allegations in an answer filed Nov. 17 in Ridha, et al. v. Texas A&M University System, et al. According to the defendants’ answer, the alleged terminations of Mundhir Ridha and his wife, Saeeda Ali Muhsen, were based on “reasonable, non-discriminatory motives.” Ridha and his wife filed the suit in September in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Houston. In their Sept. 25 first amended complaint, the couple alleges that Ridha is “a world-renowned doctor” who specializes in clinical reproductive physiology, human infertility and in-vitro fertilization. Among other things, the couple is suing the A&M defendants for race, color, national origin and religious harassment and discrimination under 42 U.S.C. §§2000(e), 1983 and 1981. One of the couple’s allegations is that someone broke into Ridha’s office and threw animal urine and feces on their holy prayer rug. Karen Watson, dean of faculties and associate provost at A&M, wrote in a Jan. 2 letter to Ridha, filed as an exhibit with the original complaint, that she found that personnel in the research lab where Ridha worked did not discriminate against him but that there is “a draconian approach” to supervision in the lab that “sets the tone for people to feel targeted and mistreated.” In their answer, the A&M defendants deny that Ridha is a world-renowned doctor and characterize his position at A&M as “a part-time research scientist.” Shane McClelland , who represents the Iraqi couple, says the A&M defendants’ denial that Ridha is world renowned in the field of in-vitro fertilization “rings hollow.” McClelland, a partner in Houston’s Simon Herbert & McClelland , says that in the early 1990s, Ridha and his team were responsible for the first test-tube baby ever born in the Middle East. Tom Kelley, spokesman for the Texas Office of the Attorney General , which represents the defendants, declines comment on the suit.
