Harlan Laboratories, Inc. v. Campbell

900 F. Supp. 2d 99, 2012 WL 5285127, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158545
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedOctober 25, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 12-10995-PBS
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 900 F. Supp. 2d 99 (Harlan Laboratories, Inc. v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harlan Laboratories, Inc. v. Campbell, 900 F. Supp. 2d 99, 2012 WL 5285127, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158545 (D. Mass. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

SARIS, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Harlan Laboratories, Inc. (“Harlan”) has moved for a preliminary injunction enforcing the terms of a one-year non-competition agreement with Defendant Gerald Campbell, a former regional sales manager, who is now employed by Defendant Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (“Charles River”), a competitor, as the Director of Global Marketing. The motion for preliminary injunction also seeks to enjoin Charles River from using or disclosing any of the confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information obtained from Campbell. After hearing, the Court ALLOWS Plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction to enforce its non-competition agreement.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Based on the record, the court finds that the following facts are likely true. Harlan is a company in the business of managing, producing, storing, and supplying various laboratory animals, laboratory animal diets, products related to laboratory animals, and research antibodies to researchers around the world in medical and science industries. Harlan also provides nonclinieal and pre-clinical Contract Research Organization (“CRO”) services to researchers in those industries. Charles River is engaged in the same industry and is one of Harlan’s three main competitors. The market for these products and services is specialized and competitive, such that businesses grow by taking market share from one another.

Campbell was employed as a sales account manager and regional manager with Harlan from November 2007 until May 2012. Before working for Harlan, Campbell had been employed in several jobs in other life sciences industries, including sales of disposable research and clinical products and sales of glassware and plastic laboratory tools. At the start of his employment with Harlan, he executed an employment agreement containing a non-disclosure clause and “Covenants Against Competition” clause. Campbell’s contract with Harlan Laboratories provides in relevant part:

During Employee’s employment and for a period of one (1) year after he ceases to be employed by Employer, Employee shall not in the geographical area of the United States be employed by any of the following companies, their subsidiaries, divisions, or affiliates: Charles River Laboratories, Taconic, and the Jackson Laboratory, or be employed by any business which competes directly with Employer in the business of managing, producing, supplying and selling laboratory animals, or providing preclinical CRO services ...

Campbell’s job responsibilities as a regional manager at Harlan included managing sales representatives, establishing sales budgets, tracking sales progress, and managing the Salesforce database that contained all of Harlan’s client information. (Campbell Aff. ¶¶ 27-28, 35-37.) Some of these job functions required direct customer contact, as well as overseeing some of Harlan’s most strategically important ac[103]*103counts. (Campbell Aff. ¶ 28; Mills Aff. ¶7).

Harlan asserts that in this role of regional manager, Campbell had to learn and use Harlan’s confidential research model development. (Meyer Aff. ¶ 19.) It also states that Campbell’s important accounts included the world’s largest CROs. (Mills Aff. ¶ 7). Campbell contests these claims, asserting that he never worked with Harlan’s non-elinical or preclinical CROs division, and that all his knowledge of Harlan’s research models and processes is public knowledge. (Campbell Aff. ¶¶ 47-52). However, Campbell does not dispute that as sales manager, he had regular access to a wide range of confidential information, customer preferences, inventory reports, pricing customer-specific information, sales opportunities, sales records, sales revenue data and more. (Campbell Aff. ¶¶ 58-65, Meyer Aff. ¶ 22.) Campbell insists, though, that he does not specifically remember this information.

Harlan also asserts that Campbell implemented long and short term marketing plans, and participated in confidential strategy and leadership meetings and marketing conferences, (Mills Aff. ¶ 6; Meyer Aff. ¶ 20.) Again, Campbell disputes that he knows confidential marketing strategies, but concedes he was involved in monthly sales review meetings (Campbell Aff. ¶ 55.)

On April 6, 2012, Campbell accepted an offer to work for Charles River and submitted a letter of resignation with Harlan Laboratories on the same day. On April 12, 2012, Campbell informed Harlan that he would be working for a competitor. Sometime before April 16, 2012, Harlan learned that Campbell had received an offer from Charles River and subsequently sent a letter on April 16 reminding him of the employment contract he had signed. The letter also informed Campbell that the prospect of litigation, should he choose to accept an offer with a competitor, was “very real” and notified him that he should preserve all documents related to Charles River and Harlan. (Aff. Meyer, Ex. 1.)

Campbell’s last day of work at Harlan was May 4, 2012. He began work at Charles River on May 7 as the Global Marketing Director for Research Models and Services. Campbell describes his responsibilities in this role as developing marketing plans and advertising campaigns, building collateral and global products catalogs, conducting webinars, launching new products and services, coordinating strategies for trade shows, developing website content, and driving marketing communications. (Campbell Aff. at ¶ 80.) He also claims that he markets products and services that Harlan does not offer in North America, such as research animal diagnostics and genetically engineered models and services. Id. at ¶ 81.

On May 29, while working at Charles River, Campbell received an email from a new Charles River colleague, Bruno Privat, requesting help on a market share analysis. That same night, Campbell accessed a flash drive and opened several files containing Harlan’s confidential information. The files contained thousands of pages of information, including a discount report, confidential client contact information, and powerpoint presentations for important clients. One document that was accessed by the Defendant (and viewed by the Court) contained the descriptions of thousands of client orders, including the names of the client, the products bought, with pricing and discount information. Campbell saved several of these files to his computer, and subsequently discarded the flashdrive. Campbell asserts that he does not remember reviewing or copying the information, but recalls throwing out a [104]*104Harlan-branded flashdrive along with other Harlan paraphernalia. (Campbell 2nd Aff. ¶ 3.) There were other instances where Charles River employees requested information from Campbell regarding Harlan. (Spencer Aff. ¶ 7, Mullane Aff. ¶¶ 4-5, Pritchett-Corning Aff. ¶¶ 4-6.) While it is contested whether Charles River employees were asking for confidential or publicly available information, there is no evidence that Campbell actually accessed or provided Harlan’s information in response to these requests.

On June 4, 2012, Harlan filed a complaint in this court against Defendants Campbell and Charles River, alleging, inter alia, breach of contract, misappropriation of confidential information, and unfair and deceptive trade practices. A motion for preliminary injunction was filed by plaintiffs on June 12, 2012 against both defendants.

III. DISCUSSION

A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
900 F. Supp. 2d 99, 2012 WL 5285127, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harlan-laboratories-inc-v-campbell-mad-2012.