Wichita ? The 121-year-old newspaper in the southwest Kansas town of Liberal is suing its upstart competition — a daily publication in the same town that’s published by its former employees.

Liberal Publishing Co., which puts out the Southwest Times and two free weeklies, filed suit against Seward County Publishing and five former Southwest Times employees who started the new High Plains Daily Leader in May.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wichita, seeks unspecified damages for alleged computer fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty by the former employees. It also accuses them of deceit, interfering with business relations, defamation and civil conspiracy.

Daily Leader publisher Earl Watt — who was publisher of the Southwest Times and president of Liberal Publishing — denied the allegations Wednesday, calling the lawsuit a last-ditch effort to force his new paper out of business.

The defendants are studying possible responses, said Daily Leader managing editor Larry Phillips, who was editor of publications for Liberal Publishing.

“We are looking at several possibilities, including countersuit for libel,” Phillips said. “Some of the things they have accused us of doing is libelous.”

The lawsuit alleges that Watt devised a covert plan to destroy the Southwest Times while still in its employ and that he and other defendants stole company information, damaged equipment, diverted company business and repeatedly lied to hide their scheme.

“It is not unusual for newspapers to compete, but it is unusual for somebody to use their existing employer’s resources to compete with their employer while they are being paid by that employer,” said Vic Hayslip, the Birmingham, Ala., lawyer representing the Southwest Times.

The High Plains Daily Leader was started after the Times reduced publication from daily to three days a week and canceled its news wire and other syndicated services. Watt said the community wanted and deserved a daily publication.

About 16 of the Southwest Times’ 22 employees left to work at the new paper. Until the moment of their departure, Watt said, they all worked on the Times’ behalf, promoting subscriptions and selling ads.

“It is unfortunate that it gets to this. There are a lot of statements they have made that have been harmful to the staff and they have refused for a long time to pay some of the folks for the sales that they did,” Watt said. “And not one employee, nor myself, ever did anything while we were representing the paper to send any business away.”

Watt also denied that the former employees took with them any information or computer programs as alleged in the lawsuit.