Bryan Rhode: Is the owner of ACUMEN Apparel facing legal issues? The Truth Exposed (Update 2024)
Are you interested in buying from ACUMEN Apparel? Then you should know a bit about its founder – Bryan Rhode.
The guy was in a legal battle just recently but the Court didn’t rule in his favor.
Some might say he tried to extort money out of his last employer through the lawsuit. But the Court didn’t rule in his favor as they didn’t find any factual basis in his claims.
In the following review, I have explained how Bryan Rhode allegedly tried to extort his last employer:
Who is Bryan Rhode?
Bryan Rhode is an ex-Marine and an entrepreneur. Before founding ACUMEN Apparel, he used to work at CSX Transportation Inc.
Before that, he worked as Secretary of Public Safety in the Governor’s office in Virginia. Bryan has a BA in International Politics from Penn State University.
Also, he has a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and an MSc in Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Certainly, he has a lot of professional experience but he was making headlines for the wrong reasons.
A few years ago, he sued his employer after allegedly resigning from his position and claiming that he deserved a severance package. I have shared more details on Bryan’s lawsuit in the next section of this review:
About ACUMEN Apparel:
Bryan Rhode is the founder of ACUMEN Apparel. The company claims to create clothing solutions for men.
Also, the company claims to offer the patent pending ACUMEN Set, which consists of a dress shirt, a shirt stay and socks.
The company focuses on selling shirts that “stay tucked”.
On paper, the company looks attractive and certainly a possible success. However, the shady history of its founder puts a few dark clouds over the company’s future.
Bryan Rhode’s Legal Battles with His Last Employer
Before launching ACUMEN Apparel, Bryan Rhode used to work at CSX as Vice President, Public Safety, Health and Environment.
He held that post for 2 years. Prior to that, he handled various roles in the company for around 5 years.
Certainly, he must have developed a significant rapport with the company. But maybe, Bryan didn’t care.
He resigned from his post of Vice President and left CSX.
Then, he sued his ex-employer claiming that the company didn’t give him a severance package.
In 2020, Bryan Rhode filed a Labor – Employee benefit lawsuit against CSX Transportation, Inc. He filed the case in US District Courts, Florida Middle District.
His severance suit didn’t go anywhere as a federal magistrate judge said the company had a reasonable basis for concluding he forfeited severance by resigning voluntarily.
Then, he raised objections against the ruling of the federal magistrate judge but the court overruled them all.
More Details on the Lawsuit
Bryan Rhode of ACUMEN Apparel had raised several objections against the magistrate judge. He alleged that the judge didn’t analyze whether the plan administrator applied the correct legal standard when determining he had resigned.
The court said the objection was unavailing. That’s because Bryan Rhode didn’t cite any authority for the proposition that there is a particular legal standard for resignation.
Then, he objected to the judge’s recommendation that the Court find the administrator conducted a full and fair review.
In response, the Court said the objection is unpersuasive.
Finally, in his third objection Rhode challenged the magistrate judge’s analysis of the company’s conflict of interest. The Court overruled the third objection after seeing the administrative records and other documentation.
Clearly, Bryan Rhode resigned from the company for some reasons but wanted more money. So, he filed a severance lawsuit claiming he didn’t resign and deserved compensation.
It’s suspicious and makes him seem like an extremely greedy person.
After all, why would a VP file a labor lawsuit after resigning from the position himself?
Conclusion
The Court found that Bryan Rhode had resigned from his position. Like you must already know, companies don’t offer severance packages to employees who resign from their positions voluntarily.
However, he sued his employer anyway but didn’t get anywhere. Maybe he was hoping to make a few extra thousand? Only he knows.
Now, he has launched a new company. But seeing his history of unethical conduct, I don’t recommend working with him. He might be experienced but he seems quite selfish and greedy.
If the employer offers different types of schemes to the employee then it would able to boost the working factor and lifestyle of the employee.
The employee’s working conditions are very well they get different types of laws from the government which they can use to raise funds like Gratuity and Provident funds etc.
The lack of ethics in the individual or firm leads to the malfunction of the particular person and the business. The employee should trust the firm, otherwise, he can’t able to work with the firm.
Coordination in the company leads to achieving the task on time here we see that there is proper planning and directing were missing by this the Controlling and staffing of the management are affected.
After reading this article, I found the hidden intention of Byran Rhode was that he wanted to earn more money but he didn’t work on the growth of the firm this shows that he had lack knowledge of the market. And the main motive was earned profit.
Through my experience as HR Manager that there should be accountability and decentralization of power to the employees or subordinates, hit the mindset of the individual and they do the task on the time
In my opinion, If the person wanted to grow their business then there should be a Going Concern principle,w the owner should keep in the mind the business for the long-term profit motive is the second thing.
The markets are all about the demand and supply of goods and services in the market. But the producer, and entrepreneur keep an eye on the management of the company. What are the needs of the management? or the needs of the employee?
The firm should be run in a way that the goal of the company is always the goal of the investors. Individual interest can not lie between the goal of the business.
Nowadays, people are focusing on wealth and for this, they wanted to succeed or want fast results. But no one wants Blood, sweat, and tears to achieve something.
The man is definitely not what he markets himself to be. I don’t trust Bryan Rhode and I don’t think anyone else should either.
Bryan Rhode seems like a textbook case of extortion. I’m glad he didn’t win the lawsuit otherwise you would have everyone suing their last employer saying “I deserve a severance” even when they don’t. What’s sad, though, is he didn’t face any consequences for his actions. One might say that his move to sue CSX like that brought a lot of negative attention to the company. For sure, it wouldn’t have helped the company to go into a legal battle on such a trivial matter. I don’t like people like Bryan. Because of people like him, companies make stricter policies regarding resignations, making things difficult for everyone.