Rockville deaf-services company Viable has been hit with a class-action lawsuit filed by former and current employees seeking back payment of wages, interest, compensatory damages and other relief. The litigation comes not long after Viable made an agreement to be bought by a New York competitor.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed Aug. 26 in a Greenbelt federal court, include Viable's former director of corporate communications, Glenn Lockhart, who left the company last month.

The lawsuit adds to the woes of Viable, which has been under a cloud since a June visit by federal investigators. Viable CEO and founder John Yeh faces a separate trial next month in Silver Spring on charges he did not pay regular wages to an employee, and others have filed complaints against Viable with the employment standards unit of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's Division of Labor and Industry.

The class-action lawsuit lists 17 plaintiffs, and that number was expected to grow to 42 by the end of Wednesday, said Nicholas Woodfield, a principal with the Washington, D.C., law firm Employment Law Group and an attorney for the plaintiffs. He said that Viable, Yeh and other officers were served with the lawsuit Tuesday and have a little less than three weeks to respond. The other Viable officers named as defendants are Mary Yeh, John Yeh's wife; and Joseph Yeh, a brother of John Yeh.

The lawsuit alleges that Viable and the officers violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as well as Maryland wage payment and other laws.

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