Chief Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. of the Middle District of Tennessee issued the memorandum and order on April 15, denying motions filed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) by National Health Corporation, Jeffrey R. Smith, Maria Wong, Andrew Huckabay, and Rachel Kamau.
The court found that, "construing the allegations in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs and accepting them as true," the plaintiffs had "sufficiently stated claims upon which relief may be granted."
Lead plaintiff Nerissa Precioso and other registered nurses brought the case, docketed as 3:24-cv-00561. The suit alleges the defendants built a business on the "indentured servitude of foreign nurses" recruited from the Philippines to work in the United States.
According to the Second Amended Complaint, the defendants "lied to, underpaid, and forced these nurses to work in unsafe conditions." The plaintiffs allege the defendants kept them from leaving by "commencing or threatening baseless legal action," changing their immigration status, and imposing serious financial harm.
The plaintiffs claim the defendants used contracts that offered "no way for nurses to leave employment" and demanded upwards of $40,000—often more than the nurses' net annual pay—if they stopped working.
The complaint asserts claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Tennessee Human Trafficking Act, the Georgia RICO Act, and fraud. It also brings claims under the Virginia Overtime Wage Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act against National Health Corporation, along with breach of contract.
The court's order did not address the specific legal arguments raised in the defendants' replies or the plaintiffs' responses, concluding only that the motions were denied based on the sufficiency of the Second Amended Complaint.