The “Breach of Contract” entails another primary reason or consideration for an employer to assert a cause of action against an employee who has misappropriated trade secrets or confidential information. To move the discussion forward, this post and Part VIII of the series is an overview of “Tortious Interference with Contract” as the second “Consideration for an Employer when Drafting a Complaint & Asserting a Cause of Action” in the same regard.
Tortious Interference with Contract
Also legally referred to as intentional interference with contractual relations in diverse legal jurisdictions, tortious interference with contract consists of another common cause of action in litigation related to allegations of restrictive covenant breaches. By definition, tortious interference with contract fits within the common law of torts. Within the employment context, tortious interference with contract takes place when a former employee commits an act or acts with the intention of damaging a former employer’s business or contractual relations with another party this former employer is in contract with. This is often detrimental because such an action ends up causing economic harm or damage to the former employer.
In the context of our discussion, tortious interference with contract may be worth considering if an existing contract between the former employer and another party is interfered with by the acts committed by an employee, which have the potential to breach a restrictive contract. An example of such an issue concerns a restrictive covenant in which a former employee is prohibited from soliciting clients of the former employer.
Thus, a former employer would have a solid claim for tortious interference with contract, as well as breach of the non-solicitation covenant, if the former employer’s client were induced by the former employee to break a business agreement with this former employer and enter into another contract with the former employee or be hired by a new employer. For instance, in a past lawsuit, a court upheld that a former employer had a claim for tortious interference with contract in a case where a former employee interfered with an existing contract with a major client after this employee misappropriated the former employer’s confidential information.
Stay tuned for Part IX of this series, in which we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on “Unfair Competition from a Former Employee or New Employer” as the fifth consideration for an employer to draft and assert a cause of action for a trade secret misappropriation and/or a breach of a restrictive covenant/agreement.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!
Always rising above the bar,
Isaac T.,
Legal Writer, Author, & Publisher.