Moscow's newest western medical clinic, U.S. Global Health, has won its first victory in a legal battle with the American Medical Center after a United States judge threw out a substantial portion of the AMC's lawsuit against its Moscow rival.


"We have been very frustrated by this for the last six months and we are glad it appears to be over," said Jim Gerwin, the general manager of U.S. Global Health, which is owned in part by soft-drink giant PepsiCo. "As of the moment the judge enters this order we are free to solicit clients freely. That is our understanding."


Under an injunction issued last July by a North Carolina judge, U.S. Global Health has been forbidden from soliciting, signing or serving 177 of AMC's corporate clients, which include some of the city's biggest western firms. On Thursday, however, a different North Carolina judge issued a verbal ruling that dismissed much of AMC's lawsuit against U.S. Global Health on procedural grounds.


AMC president Dennis Sokol downplayed the decision by Judge D. Marsh McLelland. "It does not matter to the case at all," said Sokol, who is currently in Moscow. "It is a legal maneuver relating to how certain parts of the case will be tried. The fundamental issues are still in place."


A Washington-based AMC lawyer, Garret Rasmussen, however, acknowledged the significance of the ruling Monday. But he also said, "It is not the end of the case," and added, "We lost a battle but not the war."


Rasmussen said he would ask Judge McLelland to keep in place the temporary injunction while AMC appeals the decision to the North Carolina State Court of Appeals. At the appellate level, Rasmussen said, AMC would produce experts on Russian law to show that U.S. Global Health's alleged misdeeds are covered by Russian statutes. U.S. Global Health's lawyers' arguments to the contrary resulted in McLelland's Thursday ruling.


AMC initially sued U.S. Global Health in North Carolina and accused the clinic of unfairly obtaining AMC's client lists. A judge found there was reason to believe AMC's allegations and in July issued the temporary injunction.


"It was a little embarrassing for us to turn people away because of the court order," said Christoph Adamski, a vice president with Pepsi-Cola International, who oversees U.S. Global Health.


The medical director of Moscow's International Medical Clinic, Dr. Eric Downing, said the injunction's lifting would have little impact on western-style health-care prices.