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After a six-year legal battle and a 10-day jury trial in federal court, Cronkhite Counsel secured a $6.8 million verdict on behalf of the plaintiff, a leading federal contractor providing information technology services to the federal government.
The unanimous jury verdict found in favor of the plaintiff — and against a former senior manager (who formerly worked for the plaintiff) and her competing company — on the plaintiff’s claims of breach of duty of loyalty and tortious interference with business relationship.
The anticipated final judgment is over $8.5 million after adding interest.
The plaintiff’s case centered on a defendant project manager who, while employed with the plaintiff and still managing the plaintiff’s Federal Aviation Administration IT project, used her own subcontractor company to secretly bid against the plaintiff for the contract renewal.
Despite assuring the plaintiff that it would continue to perform on the FAA project, the defendant manager worked behind the scenes to ensure that her own company would obtain the FAA IT project instead of the plaintiff. To do so, the defendant manager orchestrated a scheme that involved concealing critical information from the plaintiff, misleading the plaintiff, deleting thousands of company emails, and wiping plaintiff-owned laptops.
The jury awarded the lion’s share of the $6.8 million in damages based on defendants’ tortious interference, concluding that defendants had improperly and unethically interfered with the plaintiff’s business relationship with the FAA.
The jury also concluded that the defendant manager had breached her duty of loyalty to the plaintiff by actively and secretly competing against the plaintiff while still employed there and managing the FAA project for the plaintiff.
Plaintiff’s counsel submitted the case information.
Action: Negligence and tort
Injuries alleged: Breach of duty of loyalty and tortious interference with business relationship
Case name: LinTech Global, Inc. v. CAN Softtech, Inc. et al.
Court/case no.: United States District Court Eastern District of Michigan Southern District/2:19-cv-11600-LVP-DRG
Judge: Linda V. Parker
Amount: $6.8 million ($8.5 million with interest)
Date: Oct. 27, 2025
Attorneys for plaintiff: R.J. Cronkhite, Cronkhite Counsel, Bloomfield Hills
