If you’re working under and employment contract, it’s important to know what that entails. In this case, a company is suing a former employee over allegedly giving away trade secrets, and this is against the former employee’s employment contract. There are always special clauses, like non-compete clauses and breach information, that you should understand before divulging information to new businesses.
The company filed a lawsuit on Feb. 18, 2014, stating that one of their former employees had breached his contract. Chemical and Petrochemical Inspections LP claimed that the man had breached his contract, going as far as to say that he participated in tortuous interference, conversion, common law duty of loyalty, misappropriation of trade secrets, misappropriation of time, skill, labor, and money, and violated the Texas Theft Liability Act. The company is also accusing the past employee of conspiracy and for a breach of fiduciary duty.
The lawsuit basically describes a situation where the company claims the former employee had been working for them in such a way that he had confidential business information and trade secrets about it. Additionally, he was responsible for the supervision of field operations and for the maintenance of field operations. After he gained this information, he allegedly accepted employment with a competitor, which would breach his contract.
It’s been claimed that the man divulged information to that company, which was known as a competitor. The lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court of Jefferson County, Texas, asks the court for damages in excess of the limits of the court. Additionally, it requests pre- and post-judgment interest and court costs. Thus far, the accused employee had not responded to the civil lawsuit with his side of the story, according to the documents.
Source: The Southeast Texas Record, “Company sues former employee over trade secrets” Melody Dareing, Feb. 26, 2014
