The Beasley Firm has sued personal injury law firm Kennerly Loutey over claims that firm's principals failed to pay more than $500,000 in fees from cases that began while the two were working as associates at The Beasley Firm.

The lawsuit, Beasley Firm v. Kennerly, was filed April 18 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, naming both Maxwell Kennerly and Kim Loutey as defendants. The suit, filed by James E. Beasley Jr., seeks a declaratory judgment, and raises claims of unjust enrichment, constructive trust and conversion.

According to the 12-page complaint, the lawsuit stems from a confidential settlement agreement that The Beasley Firm reached with Kennerly and Loutey when they left in 2015 to start Kennerly Loutey. That agreement, the complaint said, included a list of cases that would be brought with Kennerly and Loutey to their new firm, as well as the requirements for payments of fees and costs that were to be paid to The Beasley Firm when those cases resolved.

The complaint said that in January, while at an attorney function, Loutey told Heidi Villari, a lawyer at The Beasley Firm, that Kennerly Loutey owed the firm a substantial amount of money in fees and costs from resolved cases. Loutey, according to the complaint, further said that TorHoerman Law, which Kennerly Loutey does of counsel work for, had sent numerous checks to The Beasley Firm, but the firm failed to cash those checks.

In a follow-up writing to Beasley, Loutey said that, after the firm failed to cash the checks, TorHoerman put the disputed money in Kennerly Loutey's IOLTA account in a lump sum, according to the complaint.

However, the complaint contended, the firm never received any checks for the disputed fees and costs.

After some dispute over the amount of funds owed to The Beasley Firm, the parties agreed that $529,604 was due from resolved cases stemming from the Actos litigation. The complaint said that, soon after, Loutey said she planned to wire the funds, but never did, and instead said Beasley had breached the agreement by allegedly defaming Loutey in a sworn affidavit in a fee dispute with her former partner, Alvin deLevie.

The complaint further said that “upon information and belief” Kennerly Loutey had “misused the funds” that were due to The Beasley Firm.

Along with fees, costs and damages, the lawsuit also seeks immediate repayment of the disputed $529,604.

In an emailed statement, Kennerly disputed the allegations.

“Beasley Jr.'s allegation, couched in the language of 'upon information and belief,' that we have misused funds is of course untrue: he has been provided an accounting and the entirety of the disputed funds are in an IOLTA. We've complied with the agreement even when The Beasley Firm has breached it, and if he wants to drag this into court and test the viability of the agreement, then so be it. At some point, Beasley Jr. should come up with a better business model than suing departed attorneys,” Kennerly said, referring to a 2005 lawsuit involving attorney Andrew J. Stern's decision to leave the firm and join Kline & Specter.

Beasley declined to comment on the lawsuit Monday.