Obtained money judgment against telecom salesman and manager for unlawful solicitation of clients and violation of non-compete.

Issue: Non-Solicitation | Employment Agreement | Non-Compete

Court: Oakland County Circuit Court (Michigan)

Industry: Telecom

Judge: Judge Martha Anderson

Case Description

My client’s expertise involved constructing and servicing cellular towers throughout the nation.

My client had hired a young, novice telecom salesman and spent thousands of dollars and years training him in the industry. This included paying for his valuable telecom certifications. The telecom worker repaid this investment by resigning and secretly joining a competitor in violation of his non-compete clause. Even more troubling, the telecom worker began diverting major telecom accounts to my client’s competitor. In the meantime, the telecom worker lied to my client about his post-resignation employment plans. This kind of deceit is a common ploy used by former employees who plan on breaking their contracts and unfairly competing with their former employers.

The telecom salesman’s violations came to light when my client’s customer accidentally sent an email to the telecom salesman’s old email account–undoubtedly stored in the customer’s Outlook contacts. You would be surprised how commonly this occurs.

I was retained to file a lawsuit and to request immediate injunctive relief against both the telecom salesman and the competitor.

At the beginning of the case, the judge entered an order prohibiting the telecom salesman from doing any work on my client’s accounts now being serviced at the competitor.

As the case progressed, it became increasingly clear that the competitor obtained my client’s customer accounts due to the telecom salesman diverting them to the competitor.

The competitor fired the telecom salesman. The competing telecom company also paid my client in light of my client’s claims that the new telecom company had successfully obtained a substantial amount of business based on the telecom salesman’s diversion of business in violation of his employment agreement.

As for the telecom salesman, the court awarded a money judgment against him. Further, the telecom salesman was prohibited from working within the telecom industry for a two-year period.

These results illustrate that prompt legal action and thorough discovery into the wrongdoing can lead to significant benefits and protection of customer accounts in the telecom industry.