MTG Guarnieri Manufacturing, Inc. v. Clouatre

2010 OK CIV APP 71, 239 P.3d 202, 31 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 916, 2010 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 52
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 17, 2010
Docket107,138. Released for Publication by Order of the Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, Division No. 2
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 2010 OK CIV APP 71 (MTG Guarnieri Manufacturing, Inc. v. Clouatre) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MTG Guarnieri Manufacturing, Inc. v. Clouatre, 2010 OK CIV APP 71, 239 P.3d 202, 31 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 916, 2010 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 52 (Okla. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

DEBORAH B. BARNES, Judge.

{1 This appeal involves an agreement "not to use during or after termination of employment or divulge to others any secret or confidential information," and allegations of trade secret misappropriation. - MTG Guarnieri Manufacturing, Inc., d/b/a Hearn Machine Tool (Hearn) is the former employer of Bradley Clouatre (Clouatre) and Bryan Jay (Jay). Hearn alleges that Clouatre and Jay breached their agreement with Hearn by using and divulging certain information acquired at Hearn to their current employer, Sooner Perforations and Machine Co., L.L.C. (Sooner Perforations). Hearn also alleges that Sooner Perforations's manager and sole owner, Dean Goforth (Goforth), its employee Jason Cherry (Cherry), Clouatre and Jay misappropriated Hearn's trade secrets. The trial court granted each defendant's motion for summary judgment and denied Hearn's new trial motion.

T2 Hearn timely appealed. The appeal has been assigned to the accelerated docket and stands submitted without appellate briefing pursuant to Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.36, 12 0.8. Supp.2004, ch. 15, app. 1. After reviewing the record on appeal and applicable law and considering oral arguments presented to the panel by the parties on April 9, 2010, we find that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact remain. Therefore, we reverse the trial court's order granting summary judgment and its order denying Hearn's Motion for New Trial. We remand this case for further proceedings in a manner consistent with this Opinion.

UNCONTROVERTED FACTS 1

T3 The following material facts are uncon-troverted:

*206 1. Clouatre and Jay, both welders, are former employees of Hearn.

2. Hearn is a manufacturing company which produces, pertinent to this appeal, perforated pipe for use in the oil and gas industry.

3. Neither Clovatre nor Jay had any experience perforating pipe prior to their employment at Hearn.

4. As Hearn employees, Clouatre and Jay each executed an agreement 2 containing, in pertinent part, the following: (1) "I shall not use during or after termination of employment or divulge to others any secret or confidential information," and (2) "I agree that upon termination of employment with the Company I will deliver to the Company all drawings, blueprints, manuals, formulas, customer lists and all other materials obtained during the period of my employment."

5. Hearn does not own any patents.

6. Jay was directly involved in the construction of Hearn's drill machine used to perforate pipes.

7. Any knowledge of the customers of Hearn attributable to Jay and Clouatre is from their memories and not from any tangible items taken from Hearn.

8. Clouatre and Jay are currently employed by Sooner Perforations.

9. Sooner Perforations is also in the business of perforating pipe, but, unlike Hearn, it uses plasma technology.

10. Clouatre, Jay, and Cherry are employees of Sooner Perforations, and Goforth is the manager and owner of Sooner Perforations.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

14 Hearn filed its Petition on April 22, 2008, claiming misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, tortious interference with business relations, conversion, and violation of standards of good faith and fair dealing. All defendants filed motions for summary judgment. 3 In a court minute filed February 18, 2009, the trial court sustained the summary judgment motions. The trial court's "Order Sustaining Motions for Summary Judgment" was filed on March 6, 2009. On February 20, 2009, Hearn filed a motion for new trial asking the trial court to reexamine its decision on defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment. In a Journal Entry filed on May 26, 2009, the trial court denied Hearn's motion for new trial. From this order, and from the "Order Sustaining Motions for Summary Judgment," Hearn appeals.

15 Hearn asserts the following issues in the Petition in Error: (1) the trial court failed to recognize the existence of material disputed facts and conflicting evidence that should have rendered summary judgment inappropriate; (2) the trial court erred by using 15 0.8.2001 § 2194 as a basis for its decision; and (8) the trial court failed to apply the correct law, including 78 0.$.2001 §§ 85-94. We find that the trial court erred because genuine issues of material fact remain. Therefore, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

*207 STANDARD OF REVIEW

T6 The standard of review for this appeal is as follows:

Summary process-a special pretrial procedural track pursued with the aid of acceptable probative substitutee-is a search for undisputed material facts which, sans forensic combat, may be utilized in the judicial decision-making process. Summary relief is permissible where neither the material facts nor any inferences that may be drawn from uncontested facts are in dispute, and the law favors the movant's claim or liability-defeating defense. Only those evidentiary materials which eliminate from trial some or all fact issues on the merits of the claim or defense afford legitimate support for nist prius resort to summary process for a claim's adjudication.
Summary relief issues stand before us for de novo review. All facts and inferences must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant. Appellate tribunals bear the same affirmative duty as is borne by nisi privs courts to test for legal sufficiency all evidentiary material received in summary process in support of the relief sought by the movant. Only if the court should conclude there is no material fact (or inference) in dispute and the law favors the movant's claim or liability-defeating defense is the moving party entitled to summary relief in its favor. A trial court's denial of a motion for new trial is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Where, as here, our assessment of the trial court's exercise of discretion in denying defendants a new trial rests on the propriety of the underlying grant of summary judgment, the abuse-of-discretion question is settled by our de novo review of the summary adjudication's correctness. - Judicial discretion is abused when a trial court errs with respect to a pure, unmixed question of law.

Reeds v. Walker, 2006 OK 43, ¶¶ 8-9, 157 P.3d 100, 106-107 (footnotes omitted, emphasis added). See also Rule 13, Rules for District Courts of Oklahoma, 12 O.S. Supp. 2002, ch. 2, app.

ANALYSIS

T7 Hearn claims that Clouatre and Jay breached their agreements "not to use during or after termination of employment or divulge to others any secret or confidential information," and that all defendants misappropriated Hearn's trade secrets. The alleged "secret or confidential information" and trade secrets are (1) Hearn's customer information, 4 and (2) Hearn's methods, systems, and processes used to simultaneously perforate multiple pipe joints. 5

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2010 OK CIV APP 71, 239 P.3d 202, 31 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 916, 2010 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mtg-guarnieri-manufacturing-inc-v-clouatre-oklacivapp-2010.