A former stockbroker with Lines Overseas Management Ltd. is claiming one of her former bosses, company president Brian Lines, assaulted her after a dispute over money.

Former LOM employee Carol Green is being sued in Supreme Court by Lines Overseas Management for more than $100,000 as part of money they claim was loaned to her, plus interest, while working at the money management firm.

At one point Ms Green owed as much as $386,000, LOM lawyer Juliana Jack said yesterday, but the company is now asking for $110,643.26 plus interest from the former employee.

But the court heard in a counter-claim Ms Green has sued for damages of breach of contract, wrongful withdrawal of money from her account, constructive dismissal and claims that Mr. Lines assaulted her.

And it is claimed $201 was taken from one of her LOM accounts without permission for drinks she and her friends consumed while attending the LOM tent at the XL open which she allegedly gate-crashed at Coral Beach.

And her lawyer, Mark Diel, claims that LOM acted improperly by also taking funds from her account without her consent to pay for payroll tax, health insurance and pension.

Ms Jack said in her opening statement that Ms Green's amended defence was a "red herring".

She said: "The defendant claims that she was constructively dismissed by reason of the plaintiff's conduct. In support of this, she says that Mr. Brian Lines, President of the plaintiff, assaulted her. This is adamantly denied."

Ms Jack claimed that Mr. Lines had simply bumped into Ms Green and that a witness would be brought in to testify.

Ms Jack said: "This is a debt action brought against the defendant to recover monies she borrowed from the plaintiff, whilst she was working there and which she never paid back. She paid some of the money back to the plaintiff, but not all, and this is an action to recover the sum outstanding plus interest. The claim is as simple as that."

In court yesterday it was revealed that Ms Green worked as a stockbroker between April 1995 and December 1997 who worked on 40 percent commission for her trades.

The court heard that after a dispute with the company over monies she allegedly owed in January 1997, she tendered her resignation, but continued to work from home on four accounts until December 1997 on a 20 percent fee, the plaintiff's lawyers said.

In her opening statement, Ms Jack said of Ms Green: "She borrowed the plaintiff's money and purchased assets and securities including very risky assets. She ran up trading losses on the accounts and her overdrawn cash position, the amount she owed the plaintiff, went as high as $386,000."

The two accounts referred to in the trial are margin accounts, a type of account where the client buys stocks partly from his or her own cash, and partly from the brokerage firm. The money is lent using the stocks as collateral.

The LOM camp claims that the two accounts, one under Carol Green and the other under CMG Ltd (CMG are the defendants initials, Carol Michael Green) became overdrawn and that to protect their investment, sold off the stocks, but the deficit was not paid by the defendant, with only one payment of $25,000 being made.

Michael Moseley, chief financial officer of LOM took the stand in the morning, and explained in detail how Ms Green came to have the margin accounts, how she was paid, the correspondence with her over the debt and requests for payment and details of how much she allegedly owes LOM.

Mr. Diel, in cross examination of Mr. Moseley pointed to money taken out of Ms Green's account allegedly without her say-so.

He argued that her accounts with LOM fell under client/broker status, not employer/employee status, which did not, under LOM's own terms and conditions, allow them to transfer money in these accounts.

And he said that money that was taken out of her account to pay for an overcharge of $5,170 should not have been removed without permission.

"I put it to you that the commission was being improperly paid, it was paid out due to her acting as an employee," said Mr. Diel. "It has nothing to do with her being a customer or client of LOM."

He added: "You took money out of a customer account?" To which Mr. Moseley replied: "Yes." Mr. Diel went on in cross examination: "And it had nothing to do with her capacity as a customer, so the debt was increased by more than $5,000?"

Mr. Moseley said: "It increased the debt she owed to LOM." When asked if there was anything in the paperwork which allowed them to "dip into accounts to pay of debts", Mr. Moseley said: "No."

Mr. Diel questioned why Mr. Moseley had stopped paying Ms Green into her regular account after she handed in her notice and began to work from home.

And he was questioned on why money was transferred from one of her accounts to another without her permission and why cash withdrawals were made for $185.26 for her commission, less health insurance and social security leaving a negative balance. He said: "Do you normally deduct health insurance from an account?" To which Mr. Moseley replied: "No". Mr. Diel then said: "So the debt increased as a result of her employer/employee relationship?" Mr. Moseley replied: "Yes".

The court heard that for a single month in January 1997 Ms Green was paid $3,225.07 in commission, and after tax, pension and social security, was paid $2891.28 for the month, according to testimony from Mr Moseley yesterday morning.

Ms Green claims her terms and conditions were changed, but Mr. Moseley claimed that every broker was paid in the same structure and he had received no complaints to his recollection about payments made to Ms Green.

The case continues today. Scott Lines and Brian Lines are expected to take the stand later this week.