Summary Judgment Win Leading to Favorable Settlement in Hard-Fought Trade Secret and GCPSA Litigation Against a Former 30-Year Employee

Our client served as an employee for a local road construction company and its affiliated family businesses for over 30 years. However, in 2016, she was named as a co-defendant in a complaint filed by her former employer claiming she had illegally used the company’s trade secrets to solicit business prospects for the benefit of a competing company established by another former employee. The plaintiff further alleged that our client, acting under the direction of the competing company, accessed and downloaded personal financial information and credit applications for the company’s officers, and OSHA compliance documents used by the company’s affiliated businesses. Our client vehemently opposed the allegations and filed counterclaims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) stating that during the last 3 years of her employment, she was not paid for the work she performed and only received $50 a week during the final 4 months. As well, she was long under the assumption the company would stay true to their agreement to grant her 10% ownership due to her longevity with the business, which never came to fruition.

The company filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on its claims against our client, and attorney Lisa Taylor likewise filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on our client’s counterclaims against the company. After fully briefing both motions, including an additional dispute of material facts, Ms. Taylor and opposing counsel appeared before the court in a specially set hearing on February 5, 2018 to provide oral argument on both matters.

After an entire day of proceedings and reviewing all the evidence, the court found that the company could not establish any misappropriation of trade secrets, in part because the contents accessed by our client (handbook policies, tax returns, job proposals) do not constitute as trade secrets, and because our client did not disclose or use any of the information found to be in her possession. Since the plaintiff did not suffer any identifiable damage, its claims seeking injunctive relief against our client were dismissed, and likewise, its GCSPA and RICO claims. The court found our client was also entitled to summary judgment on the plaintiff’s attempt to recover attorney’s fees.

After the court denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed all claims against our client, the company agreed to settle her FLSA counterclaims for $86,000. After 4 years of heavy litigation, we are very proud to have achieved favorable outcomes for our client on both fronts.