employee

Employee Held Liable for Actively Competing With Current Employer

The success of businesses in specialized fields often depends on the employees’ ability to deliver consistent-quality service and implement specialized techniques and processes. Business owners in these fields know that the costs of investment in employee training and development can be very high. What is a business owner to do when employees take this costly knowledge and expertise to a new company and begin competing against the former employer? Fortunately, New Jersey offers relief from such acts, as discussed in the recent Appellate Division case of Baseline Services, Inc. v. Kutz, et al., A-5214-09T3.

Baseline provides metrology services involving repair, maintenance, and calibration of laboratory equipment to its clients. The corporation had a substantial annual contract – in the amount of $269,000 – with Global Pharmaceutical Sourcing Group (GPSG), which is a division of Johnson & Johnson, Inc. The contract was primarily serviced from 2002 to 2006 by two Baseline employees – Kutz and Nicoludis.

LLC Member Who Refused to Retire Was Expelled by Managers

The challenges in making the transition from the the founding members of a successful enterprise to the second generation of managers are often difficult, as this litigation involving that has endured for nearly a decade demonstrates. It may be that the business has moved in a new direction, or perhaps it is simply that the founding member no longer inspires the same type of confidence as when he or she was younger. The second generation of owners often has its own ideas about the way the business should run, but the founders are loathe to cede control.

And of course there are those cases in which the founding member simply refuses to retire long after they have ceased to be a productive contributor to their business. It is not particularly unusual that the more active members of a business, whether it is a partnership, limited liability company, or a close-corporation, will ultimately seek to expel the founder from the business.

Articles Tagged with employee

Protecting Profit Margins from Employee Saboteurs

Employee Held Liable for Actively Competing With Current Employer

Expelled LLC Member Not ‘Employee’ In Age Discrimination Claims

LLC Member Who Refused to Retire Was Expelled by Managers