Successful Motion in Complex Employment Case

January 1, 2005

Thomas Dias and Richard Newman successfully defended an invasion of privacy and slander case arising from a complex employment dispute.

Plaintiff was employed as President of Old G. Neill, a Florida catalogue company.  At the time he was hired, plaintiff signed a written contract that provided a generous compensation package, a non-competition clause in which plaintiff agreed not to compete with his employer for two year years following his discharge and contained an arbitration clause. 

During plaintiff’s tenure, Old G. Neill was purchased by a larger company called Centis, which later petitioned for bankruptcy in California under Chapter 11.  A dispute occurred when Centis attempted to reduce plaintiff’s compensation.  Plaintiff accused Centis of fraud and resigned.  Shortly thereafter, Centis sold its assets to Taylor.   Taylor informed plaintiff that he had to honor the non-competition clause. 

Plaintiff filed suit against Taylor contending that Taylor had no right to enforce the non-compete clause and that he had been unable to secure employment as a result of Taylor’s intent to enforce it.  Plaintiff also claimed that Taylor conspired with Centis to commit fraud, slandered him, and printed catalogues using plaintiff’s picture without authorization.    

Plaintiff filed a motion for preliminary injunction in an effort to preclude Taylor from enforcing the non-compete clause.  The defense opposed the motion  and also argued a motion to compel arbitration and a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on behalf of Taylor.
The Court granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the fraud, slander and privacy claims and ordered the remaining claims to binding arbitration.  The court denied plaintiff’s motion for an injunction.