WHEELING – Three lawsuits claim an Ohio County business failed to properly pay its employees.
Rebekah Karelis, Tishawna Terry and Sarel Venter filed their complaints October 19 in Ohio Circuit Court against Roxby Development LLC, Roxby McLure LLC, Roxby LLC, Roxby Hawley LLC, Roxby 12th Street LLC, J&Z Marshall Rentals LLC, Zoe Morris, Jeffrey J. Morris and Jeffrey S. Morris.
“Workers’ wages are fiercely protected under West Virginia law,” Teresa Toriseva, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told The West Virginia Record. “These cases are about enforcing those wage laws for employees who earned their pay.”
Toriseva
According to the complaints, the Morris defendants began creating separate legal entities in 2020 to establish a real estate development company. The Roxby defendants were used to purchase properties in the Wheeling area. Some of the properties purchased were the Scottish Rite Building, the Mount Carmel Monastery, the McLure Hotel and the Twelfth Street parking garage. The Morris defendants also pursued other business ventures such as Roxby Labs and creating venues for parties, concerts and musicals.
“In order to do so, the Morris defendants, and the Roxby defendants, sought investment from outside investors to raise funds and capital to purchase the above-mentioned properties in Wheeling, West Virginia, and other potential investment properties,” the complaint states. “The properties that were purchased were conveyed to the Roxby defendants.”
The complaints allege the Morris defendants were using the Roxby defendants to defraud investors, enrich themselves, avoid paying taxes and launder money.
“The Morris defendants enticed investors to invest their money in their businesses, claiming that they were seeking to invest that money in order to provide the investors a return on investment. The Morris defendants marketed themselves to outside investors, claiming that they were making high-risk investments in the real estate market.”
The complaints also say the Morris defendants were using the Roxby defendants to defraud and deny paying compensation to their employees, including the plaintiffs.
Karelis says she was salaried employed by the defendants as a Director of Historic Preservation from approximately May 2021 to June 2022 when she was laid off. She says she began having paycheck issues in March 2022.
Karelis’ complaint says the defendants used a software company called Gusto for payroll, benefits and human resources until February 2022. After that, the complaint says different individuals handled payroll, but those individuals worked off an old spreadsheet that didn’t reflect Karelis’ recent pay raise. She says she didn’t get her proper salary on paychecks from March 11, 2022, to May 6, 2022. She was laid off June 10, 2022.
“While plaintiff was employed by the defendants, she did not receive two full paychecks and was only partially paid in other paychecks,” Karelis’ complaint states, adding that she is missing a total of six paychecks that total $7,571.74.
The complaints filed by Terry and Venter tell similar stories.
Terry worked as a salaried employee for the defendants in Human Resources from August 2021 to August 2022. She says she is missing three paychecks that total $7,500.
Venter worked as a salaried employee for the defendants as a Construction Manager from May 2021 to June 2022. He says he is missing four paychecks that total $8,657.67.
The complaints also allege the defendants failed to pay payroll tax deductions such as federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, state taxes, municipal taxes and state unemployment taxes on those missing paychecks.
The plaintiffs accuse the defendants of negligent failure to pay wages and other multiple violations of the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act. They seek compensatory damages, interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Toriseva, Josh Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling.
Ohio Circuit Court case numbers 22-C-170 (Karelis), 22-C-171 (Terry) and 22-C-172 (Venter)