‘American Dream’ Dissolves Into Bitter Court Row for 2 Immigrant Businessmen

When two immigrants pooled their creative forces seven years ago, they hoped to help each other achieve part of the American dream.

Byung Il Ham, an orphan from South Korea, believed he finally had succeeded in designing a circuit that would provide instant-start fluorescent lighting.

The Fullerton man joined Usman Vakil, born in Pakistan, who had started a lighting business in his garage that had thrived and grown.

Ham’s circuit was perfected, and the pair began manufacturing them in 1982. But within three years, the team parted bitterly.

Ham has since filed a lawsuit, claiming that Vakil defrauded him by refusing to pay the royalties from sales of fixtures based on Ham’s design--sales his lawyer claims now approach $100 million.

Vakil, however, claims that the device, which looked so promising at first, turned out to be a “financial disaster.” Vakil’s attorneys contend that Ham was kept on the payroll for three years and then justifiably fired when he proved himself incapable of contributing to research toward improvements.

Trial Begins Today

Those different versions of the falling out will be heard in the trial of Ham’s lawsuit, set to begin today in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. Defendants are Vakil and his firm, Lights of America Inc., which markets products nationwide.

After coming to the United States in 1977, Ham worked as a laboratory technician, a shoe repairman, and in the manufacture of ceramics. But ever since his school days, when Ham developed an interest in electronics, he had been determined to improve electrical devices, according to his lawyer, Thomas H. Kagy of Los Angeles.

Working steadily in his spare time, Ham eventually came up with the circuit he was looking for, one that would provide an instant start for fluorescent lights in an energy-efficient way.

The would-be inventor contacted the Lights of America factory in the San Gabriel Valley city of Walnut, in search of special equipment. There he met Vakil, and the two men struck up a conversation.

Ham “popped up out of nowhere,” said Thomas E. Elenbaas of Fullerton, one of Vakil’s lawyers.

Both sides agree that Vakil was interested in the circuit, so Ham produced schematic designs and mock-ups. The two immediately decided to work together, with Ham agreeing to a 2% royalty on gross sales. Vakil also agreed to pay Ham $5,000 a month against the expectation of future profits, according to court records.

After 18 months of refinement, production of the fixture, dubbed the “80-20,” began in February, 1982. And Ham began receiving his monthly $5,000, court records say.

“There were all kinds of problems as soon as manufacturing began,” said James Keir, who also is representing Vakil. “Customers were sending them back to the factory. The problems were insurmountable.”

Within six months, production was discontinued, according to court records. But a new model, the “80-40,” was successfully developed and marketed. The model and products based on it allowed Lights of America to expand “one hundred-fold,” Kagy claimed in court papers.

Ham claims his design was the basis for the 80-40, but Vakil contends that the circuit for the commercially successful fixture was developed by company researchers independently of Ham.

While Ham collected $5,000 a month for three years, he was steadily demoted, court records showed. From researcher at Lights, he was reassigned to repairing fixtures, and was finally shuffled to box assembly. On Jan. 4, 1985, Vakil fired Ham.

“Because of his high salary, his menial work was creating a morale problem,” Vakil stated in a written declaration in the court file. “We had to terminate him.”

Ham’s attorney sees that $5,000 a month as his strongest weapon. It demonstrates that Vakil did consider himself bound by the original agreement, according to Kagy.

“It’s the critical evidence,” Kagy said. “It’s clear why they were paying him: he developed the device they were selling.”

To Elenbaas, however, the payments show how untraditional Vakil’s business was. After Vakil founded the firm, five brothers immigrated and joined it. The business was family, Elenbaas said.

“You’ve got to understand the perspective of the company. It was a very family-oriented business,” Elenbaas said. “When he took you in, you were like family. He just didn’t want to kick him out on the street.”

The trial is scheduled before Orange County Superior Judge John C. Woolley.