The appeals court also certified that its judgment was in conflict with an opinion on the same issue from the 8th District Court of Appeals. Mkparu v. Ohio Heart Care, Inc., et al. This case involves an employment contract dispute between Dr. Fidelis O. Mkparu, a cardiologist, and Ohio Heart Care Inc., the medical practice in Canton that Mkparu joined in June 1996. Mkparu says that before he signed his contract with Ohio Heart Care in October 1995, one of the partners, Dr. David Utlak, told him that after two years Mkparu could buy enough shares of the business to become an equal partner. In a partnership, a person's share of the profits is based on how much of the business he owns.
More shares mean more take-home pay.
Mkparu claims that he was promised the opportunity to buy as many shares as the other partners owned. Included in Mkparu's end of the bargain were certain restrictions. Utlak later agreed that there were mistakes in the agreement and told all the new doctors the errors would be corrected. But the partners never changed the closed corporation agreement and five of the new physicians left the practice to work elsewhere. Mkparu, however, stayed.