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: The Trade Secrets Vault

Lifetechniques sought damages for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, tortuous interference with business relationships, misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion and civil theft.

In June 2005, plaintiff Lifetechniques Inc., a San Antonio business owned by Vesta Brue, entered into a three-year employment agreement with Karen West. West was hired to serve as president of the division MedSignals, wherein she would help develop and market the MedSignals product from an office in West Palm Beach. Most of Lifetechnique's income comes from National Institutes of Health grants for the development and commercialization of health care products. West was fired on Aug. 18, 2006, allegedly because she had abused her expense account by submitting claims for reimbursement for personal items. Lifetechniques sued West on Aug 23, claiming she refused to return company property. The amended complaint alleged breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, civil theft, tortuous interference with business relationships, and misappropriation of trade secrets. West denied liability and counterclaimed for the balance of her three-year contract for unpaid wages, vacation pay and unreimbursed business expenses charged to her personal credit card. According to defense counsel, Lifetechniques had failed to have the employment agreement drafted by an attorney, and it contained no escape or early termination clause. West claimed that at the end of the first year, the company replaced her, and then alleged wrongdoing by West to try to escape liability for the two remaining years on West's contract. West claimed that she would have returned the property owned by Lifetechniques, but that she left the country for a scheduled three-week vacation immediately following her termination. West claimed that she was sued while out of the country before she had the opportunity to return the items that belonged to the employer. Two weeks before trial, after extensive discovery of financial records and deposition testimony of other former employees of Lifetechniques, the plaintiff dropped its claims for civil theft, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious interference.

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on November 30, 2008 (boomark / email).