According to the complaint, Nathan Duce and Rachel Duce, who previously worked at UHM as a branch manager and loan officer respectively, took customer information from the Ohio-based lender and used it to conduct business at American Pacific Mortgage.

A drop in Nathan Duce's production volume after his wife's departure led to the discovery that he was reportedly forwarding borrower information to his spouse. She left UHM to work at APM in May. 

"Union Home's review of Mr. Duce's Union Home email account revealed that Mr. Duce was sending confidential information to both his and Mrs. Duce's personal email after Mrs. Duce left Union Home," the suit claims. Following the discovery, Nathan Duce was terminated from his role at the firm.

The American Pacific location that Rachel Duce transitioned to is just 17 miles away from the branch she was working at in Georgia, the litigation says. Since then, she has originated at least one loan that was with a customer previously with UHM. 

Per a noncompete agreement signed by the couple with Union Home, a "restricted period" prevented them from directly or indirectly soliciting or diverging business from any customer of Union Home for one year. Noncompetes are used by some mortgage lenders to prevent top producing branch managers and producers from jumping ship.

The suit claims APM, which is also a defendant in the case, knew of Duce's contractual obligations to Union Home, but ignored them.

Union Home Mortgage and American Pacific Mortgage did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

The Ohio-based lender is asking an Ohio federal court to issue a preliminary and then permanent injunction requiring the couple to follow their noncompete agreements with Union Home.

Rachel Duce is still employed with American Pacific, while Nathan Duce is currently not sponsored by any firm, a check of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System shows.

Union Home Mortgage has been on a tear, growing its headcount, adding teams of originators, and acquiring other companies — but it's also moved to protect its assets through litigation.

In recent months, UHM announced that a team of 16, led by top-performing originators Ravi Patel and Justin Allen, would be joining its Cincinnati office. It also nabbed Houston-based Nations Reliable Lending, adding a billion-dollar origination business to its larger operations.

UHM was founded in 1970 and operates consumer-direct, retail and wholesale businesses in addition to servicing its own loans. It has 886 sponsored LOs, according to public records, and is among the nation's largest independent mortgage bank lenders.

This is at least the second suit filed where former Union Home employees moved over to American Pacific and allegedly broke noncompete agreements.

A suit filed in March accuses nine of its former employees for breaching a number of agreements, including a noncompete contract. The litigation, also filed in an Ohio federal court, comes after eight managers and one loan officer, based on the East Coast, transitioned to American Pacific Mortgage. All of the employees were bound by noncompete clauses that prevented them from working for competitors for a period of time.