Oppenheimer & Co. has failed in an attempt to get  a temporary restraining order against a former broker at the firm it accuses of trying to steal the clients of a deceased colleague.

Oppenheimer filed the complaint against David Dodson in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, last month, accusing him of  “causing immediate and irreparable harm” by contacting and soliciting clients to build up his new book of business at HamptonRock Wealth Management in Austin.

The clients were those of a colleague who passed away and then been assigned to Dodson while he was still at Oppenheimer, according to court documents.

In a court decision last week, Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, citing several Supreme Court decisions, ruled that Oppenheimer “failed to demonstrate a likelihood that it will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a [restraining order],” according to court documents. He scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for September 19.

Dodson, who has been in the industry for more than two decades, was employed with Oppenheimer in Austin, Texas, from September 2018 until he resigned in August to launch HamptonRock Wealth Management. In 2021, he was assigned the accounts of an advisor who was terminally ill, the complaint said, noting that the father of the advisor, a retired branch manager at Oppenheimer, had chosen Dodson to manage his son’s book of business, which serviced about 30 household and represented roughly $65 million in assets.

But, the complaint said, Oppenheimer learned that Dodson had begun to reach out to clients before his resignation, soliciting at least one of them to join him at his new firm. Oppenheimer argued that not only was Dodson not allowed to solicit clients under his employment agreement, which prohibited him from soliciting accounts that were assigned to him during his employment at Oppenheimer for two years after leaving the firm, he also was not protected by the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, which governs an advisor’s use of client information when they leave a firm.

The protocol, the complaint said, “makes clear that an arrangement under which a departing broker managed the accounts of a retiring broker at his former firm must be honored.”

The complaint said that as part of its retirement program, Oppenheimer entered into  a “Survivor Benefits Commitment Agreement” in May 2021 with the sick broker, whereby his clients’ accounts would be assigned to Dodson who would service the accounts not only for the benefit of Oppenheimer’s clients but also for the benefit of the broker’s wife and two [minor] daughters. The broker died in July 2021.

The agreement called for Oppenheimer to pay a “significant portion” of the revenue to the broker’s estate for five years, the complaint said. So far, Oppenheimer has paid $308,000 in revenues to the broker’s estate and is obligated to distribute revenues for another two years, the complaint said.

Dodson’s attorney, Matthew J. King of King Estate Law, PLLC in San Antonio, Texas, was not available for comment before press time, and Dodson did not respond to a request for comment.

Oppenheimer’s attorney, Andrew R. Harvin of Houston, Texas, did not respond to a request for comment.