Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope Sues Former Employee for Disclosing Trade Secrets
October 3, 2011

By Sahely Mukerji, smukerji@glass.com

On September 29, Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope Inc., headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., filed a petition against Jon Todd Staley of Royce City, Texas, a former employee of Oldcastle, in the District Court of Kaufman County, Texas. The petition alleges that Staley misappropriated Oldcastle's trade secret and other confidential and proprietary information.

Staley now works for International Skylight d/b/a Acralight International.

"While employed at Oldcastle, Staley was responsible for identifying and recommending potential purchasers of Oldcastle's standard skylight assets, including equipment and intellectual property," according to the petition. "Based on the recommendation of Staley and others, Oldcastle sold its standard skylight assets to Acralight. In the days immediately preceding his resignation to accept employment at Acralight, Staley misappropriated Oldcastle's trade secret and other confidential and proprietary information by e-mailing documents to his personal email account and by attaching external storage devices, including 'thumb drives' and an external hard drive to his company-issued laptop."

The petition further alleges that Staley sent his resume information to an Acralight employee on July 13, and on the same day he began transferring Oldcastle's confidential information to his personal email account. He started his new job at Acralight on July 12, even though his employment with Oldcastle did not end until July 26, the petition states.

Staley used Oldcastle's confidential material to benefit Acralight, the petition alleges, and consequently has likely incurred financial losses to Oldcastle.

Staley joined Oldcastle's Terrell, Texas, facility in 2007 when Oldcastle acquired Vistawall Group of Terrell. He worked closely with Jeff Rutledge, the former general manager of the skylight division of Oldcastle, who worked on identifying potential buyers of skylight assets, the complaint says. It also alleges Rutledge evaluated offers and made recommendations about them. Rutledge was terminated in April "for causes unrelated to his work on the sale of the standard skylight assets," the petition states, and began working for Acralight shortly after. Staley took over Rutledge's job.

In the petition, Oldcastle accuses Staley of breaching the "secrecy agreement" between them, which restricts Staley's use and disclosure of Oldcastle's confidential, proprietary and trade secret information. It also accuses Staley of misappropriation of trade secrets, violation of Texas Theft Liability Act, and violation of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Oldcastle seeks a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, and permanent injunction, according to the petition. The company also asks the court for actual damages resulting from Staley's actions, court costs and attorney fees.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP of Dallas represents Oldcastle.

At press time, Staley had not responded to requests for comment from USGNN.com™.

Stay tuned to USGNN.com™ for further details as they emerge.

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