Met-Rx : An arbitrator awards the ex-partner $1.5 million.

May 4, 2009 - PRLog -- Bodybuilder squeezes award from Met-Rx

FITNESS: An arbitrator awards the ex-partner $1.5 million. The company will appeal.

In the case of The Bodybuilder vs. The Doctor Who Invented Met-Rx, score Round 1 for the muscles.

Dr. Scott Connelly, founder of the Met-Rx brand of muscle enhancing powders and foods, must pay nearly $1.5 million to a former business partner, Darren Meade of Laguna Niguel, an arbitrator has ruled.

The ruling, part of a 1996 lawsuit filed by Meade against Connelly and Irvine-based Met-Rx USA Inc., says Connelly and the company committed fraud by not paying Meade profit sharing due to him in 1994.

A judgment hearing is slated in Orange County Superior Court on July 24.

Connelly and Met-Rx USA executives said Friday they plan to appeal.

"Darren was a young man, and possibly a talented salesman if he'd been nurtured. But he certainly doesn't warrant the payment he is asking for," Connelly said.

Connelly in 1992 hired Meade, then a 24-year-old bodybuilder, to start and manage Connelly's Costa Mesa! gym, Club Met-Rx. A year later Connelly brought Meade in as a partner in Met-Rx Marketplace, a company Connelly formed as a way to get his then-unknown Met-Rx products into retail stores.

The retail experiment, led by Meade, worked. During a 24-month stretch beginning in late 1992, Met-Rx sales _ through direct mail as well as retail _ jumped from less than $1 million to more than $40 million.

Connelly then restructured his business, creating Met-Rx USA Inc. Meade was fired by that company, allegedly after failing to report to work for a month while training for a contest.

Meade, now 30, said his marriage fell apart after his dismissal.

"Connelly could save some money by doing the right thing and paying what he owes me," Meade said.

Copyright 1998 The Orange County Register