BAM Sued a Former Bricks & Minifigs Manager… Then Dropped the Case

[00:00:00]Today EchoBaseNetwork has a crazy Bricks & Minifigs update for you guys. We're going to tell you the story that we've just learned about and we actually interviewed this man, a former manager at the Salem location, the same location that Crystal Gorman worked at, the same location that the Mansell LEGO collection was at. Well, this individual ended up leaving Bricks & Minifigs altogether to start his very own LEGO resale corporation and you won't believe what happened. The man got sued by Bricks & Minifigs. And you won't believe how this story ends either. We're going to reveal all of that today.

[00:00:40]>> A year after I opened my shop, >> [sighs] >> uh, the lawsuit was filed against me.

[00:00:46]>> Hey everybody, welcome back to EchoBaseNetwork. We got a spicy one for you today. And this is just more revelation about Bricks & Minifigs corporate office. So, here's the background that you guys got to know. In April 2023, Bricks & Minifigs sued former franchisees Matthew and Sarah Bowman along with Austin King and his company seeking $500,000 in damages, punitive damages, attorneys fees, and injunctions. BAM alleged the defendants improperly used confidential business information and trade secrets to help launch a competing business.

[00:01:24]These were allegations in BAM's complaint, not findings by the court.

[00:01:28]Instead of simply answering the lawsuit, the defendants fought back with multiple motions including request to dismiss the case, strike portions of the complaint, require more specific allegations, and move the case to a different county. The parties also entered into a protective order to exchange confidential business records during discovery. But, the most notable part of this case is how it ended. BAM voluntarily dismissed every defendant. Sarah Bowman in April of 2024, Matthew Bowman in August, and Austin King and K2 Bricks in September.

[00:02:01]The court then dismissed the entire case with prejudice. No attorneys fees or costs were awarded to either side, and the court never ruled on the merits of BAM's allegations. The public record shows the lawsuit was filed, actively contested, and ultimately dismissed, but it does not explain why BAM chose to end the case, and we have that information for you today.

[00:02:22]>> I had one quick question. When you left BAM, did they make you sign a non-compete form to where you couldn't open a store or be a part of a store that was directly in competition with them when you left?

[00:02:37]>> So, I uh I never signed any non-competes or or, you know, anything like that. I just said, you know, I'm I'm going to bow out. I'm going to start my own place. Um >> So, you left on your own?

[00:02:49]>> Yeah, I'm just going to do it on my own.

[00:02:50]Um so, anyway.

[00:02:51]>> All right, Nick. So, why did BAM pursue legal course against this guy? Why did he Why did they sue?

[00:02:58]BAM Franchising Incorporated sued this gentleman that left Bricks & Minifigs as a manager, started his own corporation, his own independent business, where he's reselling LEGOs, and what specific conduct did BAM allege? What Why are they suing this guy?

[00:03:15]>> Um a month before we hit our 1-year mark, um we were served papers, and um so, that was quite >> served papers after having your store for almost a year.

[00:03:26]>> Correct.

[00:03:27]>> All right, and you didn't know these papers were coming.

[00:03:30]>> I had no idea these papers were coming.

[00:03:32]>> Yeah, so their stated reason was the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information.

[00:03:38]So, basically they're saying So, basically they're saying he used his experience at BAM to go open and start another store.

[00:03:49]>> I mean I mean I I >> That's what he's guilty of? So, so does the agreement say I can never work for another company or start my own business?

[00:03:57]>> Uh yeah, nothing.

[00:03:58]>> No, it doesn't say that.

[00:04:00]>> Yeah, no agreement, you know, nobody would ever even sign that agreement. I mean, because anybody with a career in any kind of business, you learn something from one job and you take >> from your experience.

[00:04:12]>> Yeah, and you take it to the next one and then that and the next one, you know. He literally took his experience there and just started his own business.

[00:04:20]And in in the in the interview, he actually talks about he looked into opening his own BAM store, but it was way cheaper for him to do it on his own.

[00:04:29]>> So, he tells us in the interview, I'm so glad that you brought that up. He tells us in the interview uh how much money it cost him to get his own independent store up and running off the ground >> Yeah.

[00:04:41]>> from start to finish. And I want to say it was around $40,000.

[00:04:46]>> Yep.

[00:04:46]>> And in the meantime, the 2026 BAM FDD says that it cost anywhere between $360,000 to start a BAM franchise store today.

[00:05:00]>> Yeah.

[00:05:00]>> Okay.

[00:05:01]>> of that goes to BAM corporate. Uh so, so he basically took the 40,000 that would have went to corporate and just started his own company, his own business, you know.

[00:05:10]>> So, well, a lot more than $40,000 of that's going to corporate, too. But, yeah, there's the franchise agreement just $40,000.

[00:05:17]>> Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:05:18]>> So, so why did the defendant in this case, Austin King, why did he attack the complaint instead of simply just giving in? Why did he fight this suit?

[00:05:30]>> So, from our understanding, his strategy seemed to have been even if everything BAM alleges was accepted as true, the complaint still doesn't legally state any kind of valid claims.

[00:05:45]So, I guess that was just a common procedural strategy before reaching discovery or trial on their part.

[00:05:52]And and that's basically where where they were going with this. And on top of that, you know, he had his brother who was defending him in this case, who was doing this pro bono. So, it wasn't costing him any money, you know? So, so literally BAM could have done what they threatened other people doing about stretching this thing out and having it cost them so much money.

[00:06:15]>> And and that means closing your your business down.

[00:06:18]>> Yeah, exactly. So, they're like, "Stretch it out as long as you want.

[00:06:23]Uh it's not costing me anything. It's costing you guys money cuz you have to pay your attorney's fees. But my brother's doing this for me, so it's not costing me a dime."

[00:06:33]>> That's exactly right. And and he told us and I'm so glad that you brought that up because Austin King told us in the interview that the reason he believes that the entire case was dismissed by BAM Franchising Incorporated is because he had free counsel.

[00:06:49]In his opinion, he thought the whole thing was just about trying to get him to close his store down.

[00:06:55]Using whatever tactics necessary. When they realized, according to him, that when he had free counsel and he wasn't going to you know, offer any type of settlement, that he was going to fight it, they dropped the case completely. And that to me, Nick, that speaks volumes.

[00:07:13]It seems like if they had a legitimate case against Austin King and his company K2 Bricks, then they would have they would have continued legal legal action, but they didn't do that. Is it time for you to update your gaming chair or your YouTube studio chair? It was for me. If it is time, I've got just the chair for you and we're giving you a 25% off promo code. EWin Racing sent us a chair to try out. After going to their website, I was able to tell them the exact chair that I wanted. I chose the EWin Flash XL upgraded series gaming and office chair.

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[00:08:39]Use promo code Echo Base at checkout to save 25% on any chair. That's promo code Echo Base for 25% off. It is really weird to me that that one defendant was dismissed at a time. I don't know what all of that is about. Maybe some of you guys might have an idea there. I have absolutely what no idea why they would dismiss one defendant at a time.

[00:09:02]But I think that the main problem that they had was with Austin King and the and the his business, not with the Bowmans, who they claimed was giving Austin more insider information and inventory information and things like that. I I don't think that's the case at all. So, no court ruling says that Bricks and Minifigs won. There was no trial, there was no verdict, there was no summary judgment, and there was no judicial finding that the defendants committed any trade secret theft. So, did the defendants in this case win?

[00:09:38]>> Uh not exactly. There's no court ruling declaring the defendants prevailed on the merits. Uh the general judgment states the action was dismissed with prejudice and without attorney's fees, costs, or prevailing party fees awarded to any party. And for anybody that's wondering, you know, when you hear talking about, you know, without prejudice or whatever, that basically just means that they are not going to be able to bring this lawsuit against them again later on in the future.

[00:10:13]Uh so, they dismissed it, you know, without the ability to bring this back to, you know, basically file a lawsuit against them for the same thing later on down the road.

[00:10:23]>> Right. So, something else that that Austin King told us about, you know, the the the court case ended and just so you guys are aware, Austin King still has his business in Salem, Oregon called Bricks and Beyond. So, I would definitely say go and support that store in Salem, Oregon. He also chimed in quite a bit about this current Bricks and Minifigs controversy and his time there, the people that he knew and spoke with. He knows Crystal Gorman. Bryan Mansell went into Bricks and Beyond and talked to him about what was happening before Reckless Ben ever got involved.

[00:11:04]>> Yeah.

[00:11:04]>> He actually heard about the U-Haul truck that showed up at the Salem, Oregon store. So, if you are interested in listening to that entire hour-long interview with with myself and Nick and Austin Austin King, the the owner and manager of Bricks and Beyond, you could find that entire interview in our members section on YouTube. So, that's available for all of our members. So, go and uh and and join if you're interested in watching that. So, it's just this entire thing, bro, uncovers more and more Bricks in Minifigs stuff. You know, yesterday we got the new body cam footage of Ammon McNeff pretty much saying, "I think I need to get all of my owners' registered shotguns."

[00:11:53]>> Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:55]>> Because somebody might come in here and and not like us.

[00:11:58]>> Yeah, and we might cover some of this body cam stuff on our Thursday live stream. We haven't planned our Thursday live stream yet, but but we we might we might hit on some of that. But yeah, it was it was pretty interesting some of the stuff that came out of that body cam >> But every single day BAM looks worse and worse. You know, in in this one, a guy leaves Bricks and Minifigs, starts his own place, and you sue him?

[00:12:23]>> Yeah.

[00:12:23]>> Yeah, I mean, I I get he's down the road, but, you know, is is McDonald's suing Burger King?

[00:12:29]>> I don't know.

[00:12:30]>> You know, not for this. Not not for existing, you know.

[00:12:34]>> And and the thing is a lot of people up there are mistaking his store for a Bricks and Minifigs store because I guess Google has it wrong, and he talks about this in the interview.

[00:12:46]Where he's getting tons of phone calls and comments, you know, >> He's getting review bombed.

[00:12:52]Yeah, he's getting review bombed on his store because they think it's a Bricks and Minifigs because Google made an error.

[00:12:57]>> Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:58]>> nothing to do with Bricks and Minifigs.

[00:13:00]It's his own independent corporation.

[00:13:02]>> Yeah, but it's not associated with BAM at all.

[00:13:05]>> And we want to say this, too. After speaking with the gentleman for an hour, >> Yeah.

[00:13:10]>> I just want to say it was a pleasure speaking with him.

[00:13:13]He's a very nice man. So, definitely go and support him. We're going to continue to give you all the BAM updates here on EBN and everything else that we do, too.

[00:13:24]So, join us, as Nick said, on our Thursday night live stream. It is 7:00 Central Time, so we'll see you there. As we always say, we are you are Echo Base Network. See you on the next one. Bye, guys.

[00:13:34]>> E O B E O B E O B >> [music] >> E O B E O B E O