Outside Television, Inc. v. Murin

977 F. Supp. 2d 1, 36 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1492, 2013 WL 5592283, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146477
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedOctober 10, 2013
DocketCivil No. 2:13-cv-00185-NT
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 977 F. Supp. 2d 1 (Outside Television, Inc. v. Murin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Outside Television, Inc. v. Murin, 977 F. Supp. 2d 1, 36 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1492, 2013 WL 5592283, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146477 (D. Me. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AND ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO TRANSFER VENUE

NANCY TORRESEN, District Judge.

Before the Court is Plaintiff Outside Television, Inc.’s (“OTV”) motion for preliminary injunction, ECF No. 3, filed on May 17, 2013. OTV claims that Defendant Dreu Murin, a former employee, has breached the non-solicitation and confidential information clauses of his employment agreement and requests an injunction preventing further breaches. Following expedited briefing, the Court on June 4, 2013 held a testimonial hearing. On June 21, 2013, the parties filed closing briefs and the Court took the motion under advisement. Also before the Court is Defendant Dreu Murin’s motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to transfer this case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, ECF No. 19. For the reasons that follow, the Court DENIES both motions.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The Court makes the following provisional factual findings based on affidavits submitted by the parties and testimony introduced at the June 4, 2013 hearing.

OTV produces local paid promotional programming featuring businesses, activities, and events in the area of South Lake Tahoe, California. Lake Tahoe has two tourist seasons, a winter ski season and a lakeside summer season. In the off seasons, Lake Tahoe’s population is around 20,000, but tourists can boost the population to 120,000. Depending on the time of year, OTV’s programming can draw a viewing audience of anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 viewers. The content of OTV’s programming is driven by its advertisers and includes interviews with local business owners, contests, and editorial segments featuring local businesses. OTV broadcasts in the Lake Tahoe area and also has a local cable channel. OTV’s daily live morning show, Tahoe Today, is its top-rated show.

In the spring of 2011, Murin began working for OTV as an unpaid intern, a position which blossomed that summer into a full-time position as a producer and on-air talent for the company. When he accepted paid employment at OTV, Murin signed an employment agreement that required him not to disclose OTV’s confidential and proprietary information and to refrain from soliciting any of OTV’s customers for a period of twelve months from the date of his termination from employment. Exhibit A to Verified Complaint, ECF No. 1-1, (the “Employment Agreement”).

Murin testified that he signed the agreement after reviewing it briefly and without attempting to negotiate any of its terms. The contract appears on its face to have been drafted by OTV’s predecessor as a standard form contract presented to new OTV employees. Paragraph 14 of the contract contains a forum selection clause which provides: “any legal proceeding regarding the interpretation or enforcement of this Agreement shall be instituted in a court of competent jurisdiction located within the State of Maine.” Id.

From July of 2011 through September 18, 2012, Murin worked for OTV as a [4]*4producer. Most of his time was spent on location meeting with clients. He executed the advertising contracts sold by the sales team and worked with clients to craft their campaigns. He was responsible for fitting his segments into the schedule and for hosting many of OTV’s live broadcasts, including Tahoe Today. He also emceed events, which helped reinforce OTV’s relationships with its clients. Clients typically liked working with Murin because he has a dynamic personality well-suited to OTV’s promotional programming. He had contact with all of OTV’s clients, which annually average between 100 and 120, but he was not involved in sales or pricing.

Murin also had access to OTV’s playbook, which contained elements for the production of a daily show. The playbook specified that the daily show would open with a montage of visuals, showcase advertising clients in interviews about their businesses, and cover weather, entertainment, and local recreational opportunities. The playbook also discussed “lower-third banners,” which are essentially text boxes used to identify the names of interviewees, businesses, and websites that are placed over the lower third of the viewing screen during interview segments.

In the spring of 2012, the parties had a misunderstanding relating to Murin’s second job at a local radio station, KTHO (referred to as “K-Tahoe”). KTHO and OTV share a number of clients, including Barton Health, Base Camp Pizza, Specialty Sports Ventures, and Sorenseon’s Ski Resorts. Peter Loughlin, OTV’s general manager, claims that he was unaware when Murin was hired that he was also a regular radio DJ host at KTHO. When Loughlin learned about it, he was alarmed and he made it clear to Murin that he did not want Murin working for a competing medium. However, based on Murin’s representations that he had only one three-hour show per week and that he was not working with KTHO’s clients, OTV decided not to prevent Murin from working there. Murin admitted that he was subject to a “write-up” and that he was given the option of taking a pay cut and continuing to work for KTHO, or dropping KTHO and continuing as a full-time OTV employee. Murin testified that he chose to take the pay cut and to continue working for both OTV and KTHO, but it is unclear whether the proposed pay cut ever took place. In any event, Murin continued to work for OTV after the KTHO situation came to light.

In the summer of 2012, two interns reported to Murin that Loughlin was sexually harassing them. Murin, as the interns’ supervisor, relayed their reports to OTV’s human resources department in what he thought was a confidential process. On September 18, 2012, at about 6:00 p.m., Murin was called into a meeting at OTV that was already underway. At the meeting were Loughlin, OTV’s human resources director Jeffrey Dumais, and two female interns. When Murin entered the room, both interns were distressed and one was in tears. Murin was very upset to find that a meeting had been called in which the interns were brought in front of Loughlin to discuss their accusations against him.

None of the parties have a clear recall of what was said at the meeting, and they disagree about the circumstances under which Murin left the meeting. Loughlin testified that Murin became very upset, accused Dumais of violating confidentiality, apologized to the interns about what was happening to them, and averred that he was there to protect them. Loughlin recalls that Murin left the meeting after having said something to Loughlin and Dumais along the lines of “You’re going to have to do this without me. I’m not work[5]*5ing here anymore.” Loughlin understood that Murin was tendering his resignation at this point, and he testified that this left him scrambling to fill Murin’s spot hosting the next morning’s show.

Murin agrees that he was very upset about the breach of confidentiality and about the way the interns were being treated, but he denies that he resigned at the September 18 meeting. Murin testified that he stayed at the meeting until it was over. He recalls that at the end of the meeting he asked if he and the interns could be excused and that Dumais responded “yes.” Murin testified that he showed up as usual the next morning for work at around 7:00 a.m., only to find another local on-air talent already recording show updates. Murin testified that his replacement told Murin that he had heard Murin was not coming.

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977 F. Supp. 2d 1, 36 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1492, 2013 WL 5592283, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/outside-television-inc-v-murin-med-2013.