SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - A Los Angeles technology company will be able to pursue a lawsuit that says a Washington, D.C.-based law firm failed to pay it for development of a mobile app used to help wildfire plaintiffs.
A short Feb. 2 order from California federal judge Charles Breyer says Originate, Inc., "adequately pleaded" its claims asserted in a Sept. 26 complaint first filed in San Francisco Superior Court against Mauro Archer & O'Neill, as well as Fletcher Strategies and Perfected Claims.
Breyer rejected arguments in a motion to dismiss that the complaint contained only "general conclusory allegations."
According to the plaintiff's complaint, it contracted with Mauro Archer in August of 2020 to help manage claims by California wildfire victims and develop a "self service mobile experience" on which victims could file and track their claims.
Originate claims that by January of 2022, the mobile application was ready for launch but the defendants abruptly decided to change their focus to "multi-district tort litigation" due to the wildfire victims' work not being lucrative.
Originate further claims that the mobile application could have been modified for the defendants' new litigation but the defendants failed to pay outstanding invoices and falsely claimed the product was not created as agreed.
It alleges that the defendants' failure to pay a balance of $750,000 plus interest has caused the company "major financial and other problems." Originate claims the defendants accepted its services and used the case management system it developed and continues to refuse to pay it for full services.
Originate seeks monetary relief, interest and all other just relief. They are represented by Matthew Cave, Cristyn Chadwick and Adam Pullano of Kibler Fowler & Cave LLP in Los Angeles.