Martin wants his money back from energy venture

Vanguard Health chief sues to recoup $300,000 he fronted to N.Y. company

Email | Print By E. Thomas Wood

Charles N. Martin Jr.

Serial entrepreneur Charlie Martin has filed suit against a start-up alternative energy venture based in New York, seeking a no-strings-attached payback of the $300,000 he loaned it earlier this year.

Martin, who is chairman and CEO of Nashville's Vanguard Health Systems and an investor in numerous other enterprises, filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court last week against Energenics Systems LLC, of Bohemia, N.Y., and four of its principals.

The complaint, available at this link, says Martin was considering whether to invest in the company, which markets solar panels and fuel cells, when its leaders told him it would go out of business if it could not obtain financing soon. In February and March of this year, Martin made two loans of $150,000 each to Energenics.

Soon, however, Martin found out that company officials had paid much of the money to themselves as "back salary," according to the complaint. They were seeking to land a Long Island school district as their first client, but Martin found their pitch for that business to be "unprofessional and inadequate." He decided he wanted no part of the venture and, last month, asked Energenics to repay him.

The lawsuit says Martin was willing to agree to a gradual repayment without interest, so as not to disrupt the business unduly. The defendants, however, have refused to pay unless Martin "agrees to forego rights to engage in investments or other activities in the fields of alternative energy," the lawsuit states.

Martin wants both the money and a declaratory judgment that he is under no such restrictions. He claims he was privy to no trade secrets and never signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Reached at the company's offices this afternoon, COO Brent Moyers, who is among the individual defendants, said he had not yet seen the case and could not yet comment.

Les Wilkinson and David McDowell of Harwell Howard Hyne Gabbert & Manner brought suit on Martin's behalf.