Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc. v. McMullan

721 F. Supp. 2d 122, 76 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1506, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57870, 2010 WL 2428749
District Court, D. Connecticut·Decided June 10, 2010·No. Civil Action 3:09-cv-1521 (VLB)·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER GRANTING THE PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR IMMEDIATE TEMPORARY RESTRAINTS [DOC. #43]

VANESSA L. BRYANT, District Judge.

Before the Court is Plaintiff Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc.’s (“Genworth”) [Doc. # 43] Motion for Temporary Restraints and Expedited Discovery. The Plaintiff seeks to enjoin the Defendants Timothy McMullan, James Cook, Timothy McFadden, Karen Bazon, Tamara Rivera, and TJT Capital Group LLC. (“TJT Capital”) from unlawfully using confidential, proprietary and trade secret-protected Genworth information. The Plaintiff contends that it can meet the standard for preliminary injunction, including the likelihood that it will suffer irreparable harm to its business and reputation, a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims, and that it is therefore entitled to the entry of immediate injunctive relief that would restrict the Defendants’ usage and disclosure of confidential information that they allegedly acquired and misappropriated through unauthorized means. [Doc. #44], For the foregoing reasons, the Plaintiffs motion is hereby granted.

Background

Genworth initiated this action against the Defendants, former employees of Gen-worth and its Private Client Group (“PCG”) which serves as an investment advisor to a select group of high net worth individual investors. Genworth’s PCG provides investment strategies based upon asset allocations recommended by investment manager Robert Brinker (“Brink-er”), who is the host of the financial talk program MoneyTalk and publishes Marketimer, a regular monthly investment newsletter.

The Plaintiff alleges that the individual Defendants, prior to making staggered departures from Genworth, during the summer of 2009, downloaded and copied confidential documents including Genworth’s Automated Contract Tracking (ACT) database, which contains client names, phone numbers, contact information, portfolio *124 management history, and client notes. Genworth farther alleges that upon leaving the company, the individual Defendants formed TJT Capital, a competitor to Gen-worth, and used confidential client data to solicit and divert Genworth clients to their newly formed entity, and that the Defendants continued to access Genworth’s computer system even after their departure. Genworth has therefore brought claims pursuant to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 18 U.S.C. § 1030, the Connecticut Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA) Conn. Gen.Stat. § 35-50 et seq., the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUT-PA) Conn. GemStat. § 42-110 et seq., the Stored Communications Act (SCA) 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq., and Connecticut common law for claims of breach of contract, and prohibition of tortious interference with business relationships. [Doc. #1].

In August 2009, in anticipation of the pending action, counsel for Genworth, submitted a letter instructing the Defendants to preserve all electronically stored information (ESI) and other potentially relevant information in anticipation of litigation. [Doc. # 47, Exh. W]. On December 22, 2009, subsequent to the filing of this action, a class action lawsuit was initiated against the Plaintiff by client investors in Genworth’s BJ Group Services Portfolios regarding Genworth’s alleged failure to manage the portfolio in compliance with Brinker’s recommendations, as represented. Goodman v. Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc., No. 2:09-cv-05603-LDW-ARL (E.D.N.Y.2009). On February 25, 2010, the Plaintiff filed the [Doc. # 43] instant motion noting that evidence had recently come to light establishing the “Defendants’ ongoing and blatant misuse of stolen, proprietary Genworth client data, and their continuing false statements to current Genworth clients.” [Doc. #44, pg. 1], As part of its request for injunctive relief, the Plaintiff further alleges that the Defendants have used confidential client data, after the filing of this action, to contact Genworth clients and provide inaccurate information regarding Genworth’s relationship with Brinker. In particular, the Plaintiff alleges that on February 17, 2009, Defendant McMullan told a client that “Brinker was not working with Genworth anymore” and that McMullan also sent that client a letter that forwarded a press release concerning the class action, stating: “I left Genworth many months ago for several reasons, one in particular you should be aware of. Attached is a public notice that I feel an obligation to make [you] aware of ...” [Doc. # 44, pg. 14].

On April 8, 2010, and April 12, 2010, the parties participated in a motion and evidentiary hearing during which the Plaintiff presented documentary evidence in support of its [Doc. # 43] request for injunctive relief and a separate [Doc. # 34] Motion to Compel Forensic Imaging of Defendants’ Computers. [Doc. # # 85, 87], During the hearing, Defendant McMullan testified regarding his handling of Genworth client data, and Genworth presented evidence that the Charles Schwab Corporation (“Schwab”), a custodian of assets for TJT Financial, produced pursuant to subpoena, email correspondence from Defendant McMullan and Cook’s personal email account and computer that was not produced as part of the Defendants’ response to Genworth’s discovery requests, although they were responsive to such requests. Id. The correspondence reflects the Defendants’ submission of Genworth client data and information to Schwab, while still employed by Genworth, as part of efforts to establish TJT Capital and secure Genworth business for the new entity. [Plaintiffs Demonstrative Exhs. 4-6, 9-10, 12-16]. *125 During the hearing, the Plaintiff also presented evidence that the client information at issue, was password protected and that the Defendants were subject to a Code of Ethics, while at Genworth, that highlighted the confidential nature and restricted the use of Genworth client information [Doc. # 46, pg. 2; Doc. # 47, Exh. B]. Also during the hearing, the Plaintiff contended that the class action complaint represented yet another inappropriate disclosure of confidential information as it contained non-public information that only past or current employees would be privy to, and provided evidence of email correspondence between the Defendants and the attorney for the class action plaintiffs regarding the submission of information for the benefit of the class action complaint. [Docs. ##85; 87; 76, Exh. E].

Analysis

In this proceeding, the Defendants, who are the adverse party to the request for temporary restraint, received adequate notice and participated in an adversarial hearing on the application for a temporary restraining order. [Docs. # # 48, 85, 857]. Accordingly, the Court treats the Plaintiffs request as a motion for a preliminary injunction. See Levas and Levas v. Village of Antioch, III., 684 F.2d 446, 448 (7th Cir.1982); Delaware Valley Transplant Program v. Coye, 678 F.Supp. 479, 480 n. 1 (D.N.J.1988); 11 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 2951.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc. v. McMullan, 721 F. Supp. 2d 122, 76 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1506, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57870, 2010 WL 2428749 (D. Conn. 2010).

721 F. Supp. 2d 122 (Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc. v. McMullan) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Goodman v. Genworth Financial Wealth Management
881 F. Supp. 2d 347 (E.D. New York, 2012)
Amedisys Holding, LLC v. Interim Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc.
793 F. Supp. 2d 1302 (N.D. Georgia, 2011)