Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Re: verbal contracts

Your inquiry raises many questions. For instance:

1. Are you still working for the employer that had the account originally with the medical company that made the verbal proposition to you?

2. The lab workers that you indicate "devised a scheme to take the account from you" - are they employees of your original employer? Or the medical company? Or from some third, undefined place?

3. What do you mean by "scheme"? It is a loaded term that usually implies some nefarious or underhanded elements. What exactly did the lab workers do that you believe was unlawful?

4. What, if anything, did you do in reliance upon the medical company's verbal proposition to you?

Did you obtain any licenses? Hire any employees? Quit your job? Move? Expend any money whatsoever? Or take any action that prejudiced your position? If so, explain.

In order to assess your situation, an attorney would need answers to these questions. It would also be prudent to explore your relationship with your employer (the one the medical company was unhappy with). Specifically, you would want to assess whether your contemplated plan to take your employer's customer as a base for your own business runs afoul of unfair competition law and/or any express terms of your employment.

The kinds of claims I would explore and consider, depending on the full set of facts -- which are still unclear/unknown -- include fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, and promissory estoppel against the medical company and interference with a business opportunity against the lab workers. There are not sufficient facts presently disclosed to assess whether any of these potential claims are viable in your situation, even in a prima facie (bare bones) sense.

Good luck.