The case, filed in the Middle District of Tennessee, centers on allegations that NHC and its co-defendants built multi-million-dollar businesses on the backs of the indentured servitude of foreign nurses who were lied to, underpaid, and forced to work in unsafe conditions, putting their careers, their professions, and their patients' health and safety in jeopardy. According to the Second Amended Complaint, defendants used illegal contracts that offered nurses no way to leave their employment and demanded upwards of $40,000 — often more than the nurses' net annual pay — should the nurses stop working for any reason. To prevent nurses from leaving, plaintiffs allege, defendants threatened baseless legal action, changes to immigration status, and serious financial harm.
The plaintiff nurses bring claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Tennessee Human Trafficking Act, the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Virginia Overtime Wage Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and common-law fraud, among others. Breach-of-contract claims run against NHC, individual defendant Jeffrey R. Smith, and a separate entity, Infinity Care Partners, LLC.
Individual defendants named alongside NHC are Jeffrey R. Smith, Maria Wong, Andrew Huckabay, and Rachel Kamau. Each filed or joined motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), arguing the complaint failed to state a claim.
Judge Campbell, construing the allegations in the light most favorable to plaintiffs and accepting the allegations in the Second Amended Complaint as true, found that plaintiffs had sufficiently stated claims upon which relief may be granted. The order is brief on reasoning, but the denial is unqualified — all three pending motions to dismiss were denied.
The case is Precioso v. National Health Corporation, No. 3:24-cv-00561, in the Middle District of Tennessee.