Peoplekeys, Inc. v. Westfield Insurance

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided February 25, 2016·No. 100 WDA 2015·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

PEOPLEKEYS, INC., INSTITUTE FOR IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF MOTIVATIONAL LIVING, INC., AND PENNSYLVANIA SANFORD G. KULKIN,

Appellants

v.

WESTFIELD INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee No. 100 WDA 2015

Appeal from the Order December 16, 2014 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Civil Division at No(s): GD 14-000527

BEFORE: SHOGAN, STABILE, and STRASSBURGER,* JJ. MEMORANDUM BY SHOGAN, J.: FILED FEBRUARY 25, 2016 This is an appeal from the December 16, 2014 order granting Westfield Insurance Company’s (“Westfield”) motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissing PeopleKeys, Inc., Institute for Motivational Living, Inc. (“IML”) and Sanford Kulkin’s, (collectively, “PeopleKeys” or “Appellants”), 1 complaint with prejudice. After careful review, we affirm.

PeopleKeys develops, markets, and utilizes behavioral assessments to

match job applicants with prospective employers. Sanford Kulkin was

*

Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

1 PeopleKeys and IML are affiliated business entities with principal places of business in Ohio. Both are owned by Sanford Kulkin. Complaint, 1/14/14, at ¶¶ 1–3.

PeopleKeys’ Chief Executive Officer. On July 1, 2013, Appellants filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against PeopleKeys’ former CEO, Brad Myers, another former employee, and E-Pysence, the company formed by these two employees, asserting claims for injunctive relief, copyright infringement, and related allegations. Myers filed a counterclaim/third-party complaint (the “counterclaim”) asserting a single count of unfair competition against Appellants. This pleading alleged that Appellants instituted “sham litigation” against Myers “with the subjective intent of injuring Myers’ ability to be competitive . . . and to interfere with his business relationships.” Westfield’s Answer, New Matter, and Counterclaim for Declaratory Judgment, 3/14/14, Exhibit A at ¶¶ 25–26. Specifically, the counterclaim in the federal lawsuit alleged:

19. Kulkin, PeopleKeys, and IML are fully aware that Myers does not have any of their alleged trade secrets or proprietary information, including knowledge of the algorithm for matching employers to job seekers and the underlying source code as described in the Complaint, particularly since Myers was not even aware of any such algorithm having been developed by PeopleKeys or IML during his employment with IML.

20. Nonetheless, because Myers was developing a competitive, if not superior, product in the behavioral assessment market, PeopleKeys and IML filed, and Kulkin caused to be filed, on July 1, 2013, the instant lawsuit against Myers to harm his competitive position in the marketplace and scare off start-up investors and customers by entangling Myers and E-Psyence in a federal lawsuit involving misappropriation of trade secrets and trademark infringement claims.

***

23. On July 1, 2013, PeopleKeys and IML filed, and Kulkin caused to be filed, the instant lawsuit against Myers, claiming that Myers misappropriated their trade secrets and intellectual property, i.e., an algorithm for matching employers with job seekers, for purposes of starting a competitor company called E-Psyence.

24. The instant lawsuit is objectively baseless for numerous reasons, including but not limited to: (1) Myers was not privy to (and was not even aware of) PeopleKeys, IML, or Kulkin having developed such an algorithm during his employment with IML;

and (2) the products and services that Myers is marketing through the platform E-Psyence are not based upon the DISC Theory utilized by PeopleKeys and IML to develop their products and services, but rather, Myers’ products and services are developed utilizing Dr. Llobet’s copyrighted content library.

25. PeopleKeys, IML, and Kulkin were aware of the above and filed the instant lawsuit with the subjective intent of injuring Myers’ ability to be competitive through the E-Psyence platform and to interfere with his business relationships.

26. Said conduct constitutes sham litigation that serves no purpose other than to harm a business competitor.

Id. at ¶¶ 19–20, 23–26. Upon receipt of the counterclaim, PeopleKeys contacted their insurance company, Westfield, requesting coverage for defense of the counterclaim and indemnification under the policy issued by Westfield.

On August 23, 2013, Westfield sent a letter preliminarily informing PeopleKeys that coverage was unavailable because of certain exclusionary language of the policy. Westfield further advised that it had requested a formal coverage opinion and, upon receipt of that opinion, it would advise the insured if there was a determination that a defense was owed on the claim. Westfield’s Answer, New Matter, and Counterclaim for Declaratory

Judgment, 3/14/14, at Exhibit C. Six days later, Westfield informed PeopleKeys that it was denying coverage because the counterclaim did not allege a claim for “personal and advertising injury” covered by the policy and because the factual averments of the unfair competition count fell within the policy’s exclusion from coverage for “Knowing Violation of the Rights of Another” and “Material Published with Knowledge of Falsity.” Id. at Exhibit D.

On January 14, 2014, PeopleKeys commenced the instant action in Pennsylvania against Westfield for breach of insurance contract and bad faith, contending that Westfield wrongfully refused to defend them against the counterclaim of unfair competition filed in Ohio federal court. In response, Westfield filed, inter alia, a counterclaim for declaratory judgment that it did not have a duty to defend. On July 24, 2014, Westfield filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The trial court granted Westfield’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissed Peoplekeys’ complaint with prejudice on December 16, 2014. PeopleKeys simultaneously filed an appeal to this Court and a motion for reconsideration before the trial court on January 14, 2015. The trial court denied reconsideration of this decision on January 27, 2015.2

2 When the trial court entered the order granting Westfield’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, it did not rule specifically on Westfield’s (Footnote Continued Next Page)

PeopleKeys raises three issues on appeal:

1. Whether the trial court erred in failing to consider evidence that Appellee Westfield understood the claim at issue to be potentially covered under its Policy?

2. Whether the trial court erred in reading Ohio tort law elements of defamation and malicious prosecution into the Policy and reaching beyond a plain English reading of the Policy language in order to favor Westfield?

3. Whether the trial court erred in refusing to examine the totality of the pleadings to find coverage?

Appellants’ Brief at 4–5.

Our standard of review of judgment on the pleadings is well-settled. A motion for judgment on the pleadings is similar to that of a demurrer in that it may be entered only when there are no disputed issues of fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rourke v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co., 116 A.3d 87, 91 (Pa. Super. 2015). Appellate review of an order granting a motion for judgment on the pleadings is plenary, and we apply the same standard employed by the trial court. Id. We will affirm the grant of the motion “only when the moving party’s right to succeed is certain and the case is so free from doubt that the trial would clearly be a fruitless exercise.” Id. at 91 (citing Southwestern Energy Production Co. v. Forest Resources, LLC, 83 A.3d 177, 185 (Pa. Super. 2013) (citation omitted)).

(Footnote Continued)

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