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Union Home Mortgage (UHM) is suing nine former employees on claims they breached several agreements, including non-compete agreements.
The Feb. 17 complaint, which is filed at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, explains that eight managers and one loan officer, based on the East Coast, all transitioned to American Pacific Mortgage (APM) after being employed at UHM despite being bound by non-compete clauses, which prevented them from working for a competitor for a restricted period.
National Mortgage News, which first reported the lawsuit, noted that APM is not listed as a defendant in the complaint.
UHM alleges that regional manager Craig Franczak resigned and transitioned to APM in January 2025, despite a two-year non-solicitation clause that he agreed to.
The complaint continues that eight of Franczak’s former employees followed him to his new post.
UHM also claims that some of its former employees, including Robert Webb, a former branch manager, and Bobby Liu, a former team lead, received sign-on bonuses that had clawback clauses, meaning that to receive the bonus and not have to pay parts back, the associates had to stay at UHM for two years.
UHM claims that most of the originators did not follow the clauses of the contracts and that the collective group owes it over $100,000.
“Union Home Mortgage has been recognized as a Top Workplace for 10 consecutive years and enjoys one of the top growth rates among its peers. In a very small number of situations, we are put in the unfortunate position of having to enforce a reasonable employment agreement in order to defend our company’s interests. Beyond this statement, we will have no further comment at the present time,” the company shared in an email with HousingWire.
This is not the Ohio-based company’s first litigation against former employees. In late 2023, Union Home sued Go Mortgage and EMM Loans for accessing its trade secrets via the transition of former employees.
The lawsuit news comes on the tails of UHM’s announcement of the acquisition of Houston-based Nations Reliable Lending (NRL).
