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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Fight Over Marijuana Vending Machine Sales

PHOENIX (CN) - The inventor of an advanced vending machine sued a medical marijuana store, claiming it owes 50 percent of net revenue from the gizmo.

Prescription Vending Machines et al. sued the Non-Profit Patient Center and two of its officers, in Maricopa County Court.

The center and co-plaintiffs Kind Clinics, and Medicine Dispensing Systems claim co-defendants David Pieser, and Theodore Brinkofski owe it the money from their medical marijuana store in Dolan Springs, a tiny town southeast of Las Vegas.

Prescription Vending Machines is a subsidiary of Medbox, which developed a vending machine "that can verify a user's identity by way of biometric recognition and can dispense up to 60 varieties of marijuana for medical purposes," according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs claim defendant Pieser met with Medbox CEO Bruce Bedrick in April 2012 to discuss Dolan Springs project.

They agreed that Prescription Vending Machines would receive 50 percent of revenue generated from the cultivation facility, in return for assuming "all of the related expenses for the development of the cultivation facility," the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs say they sought out defendant Brinkofski as a licensee for the dispensary, but he asked to be replaced in September 2012 and sold his interests to Kind Clinics and Prescription Vending Machines. Brinkofski remained as an officer of defendant Non-Profit Patient Center, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs say they brought in (nonparty) Harp Nijjar to replace Brinkofski, who moved from Canada to Arizona to operate the dispensary.

In August, Pieser and Brinkofski "informed plaintiffs that they objected to Nijjar's involvement, intended to manage and control the Dolan Springs dispensary themselves through NPPC, and cut plaintiffs entirely out of the Dolan Springs dispensary," the complaint states.

Plaintiffs seek the $115,000 they paid to Brinkofski for his interests in Dolan Springs, 50 percent of the vending machine revenue, and damages for breach of contract.

They are represented by Brendan Murphy and W. Douglas Lowden, with Meyer Hendricks.

CORRECTION: In an email to Courthouse news on Tuesday, Nov., 12, four days after this article was posted, Medbox managers wrote that the company "does not have interest, nor does it want interest in any medicine sale revenue. We are a consulting firm that sells technology."

Medbox's email stated: "The fact is that client 1 wanted to leave the project so we found client 2 to replace the first client and reimburse his investment. After the dispensary was built and license was issued by the State of Arizona, client 1 decided it would not sign the final paperwork to transfer the asset to client 2. This, while having received payment and signing a release of his interest in the project. The lawsuit simply requests the $375k in lost out of pocket costs expended as well as the consulting revenue and machine sale revenue (as in the sale of the machine itself) that our company was cheated from obtaining."

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