Presidio Holdings Inc. v. People Driven Technology, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 30, 2025
Docket1:24-cv-02912
StatusUnknown

This text of Presidio Holdings Inc. v. People Driven Technology, Inc. (Presidio Holdings Inc. v. People Driven Technology, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Presidio Holdings Inc. v. People Driven Technology, Inc., (N.D. Ill. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

PRESIDIO HOLDINGS INC., ) PRESIDIO NETWORKED ) SOLUTIONS LLC, and ) No. 1:24-CV-02912 PRESIDIO NETWORKED ) SOLUTIONS GROUP, LLC, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) ) Judge Edmond E. Chang PEOPLE DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY, INC., ) PAUL BREHM, STEVEN KUNDERT, ) and ANGELA SPLINTER ) ) Defendants. )

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

In 2024, Angela Splinter, Paul Brehm, and Steven Kundert left their jobs at Presidio Networked Solutions, a provider of IT services and products, to join a com- petitor—People Driven Technology, Inc. (which the parties call PDT). R. 28, Diaman- dis Decl. at 2.1 Presidio alleges that during and after their departures, these employ- ees violated their confidentiality agreements with Presidio and misused Presidio’s proprietary information. R. 5, Compl. at 2–3. Specifically, Presidio contends that Splinter, Brehm, and Kundert sent confidential information and documents to their personal emails, delayed closing customer deals so that they could divert those cus- tomers to PDT, and deleted thousands of emails and files to cover up their wrongdo- ing. Id. at 12–23.

1Citations to the record are “R.” followed by the docket entry number and, if needed, a page or paragraph number. So Presidio sued Splinter, Brehm, Kundert, and PDT, alleging a litany of claims, including misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, tortious inter- ference, and breach of fiduciary duty. See Compl.2 The Defendants now move to dis-

miss the claims against Brehm, Kundert, and PDT for lack of personal jurisdiction and move to dismiss the claims against Splinter for failure to state a claim. R. 68, Defs.’ Renewed Mot. to Dismiss. Presidio, in turn, moves for a preliminary injunction against the Defendants, arguing that they will cause Presidio irreparable harm if they are allowed to continue using Presidio’s confidential information. R. 25, Pls.’ Mot. for PI. The Defendants are right that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over

Brehm, Kundert, and PDT because they lack sufficient suit-related contacts with Il- linois. And the Defendants are also right that Presidio fails to adequately state a claim against Splinter. So both motions to dismiss are granted. Finally—and relat- edly—because Presidio cannot show a likelihood of success on the merits, its motion for preliminary injunction is denied. I. Background

Presidio Holdings Inc., Presidio Networked Solutions LLC, and Presidio Net- worked Solutions Group, LLC (collectively referred to as Presidio) provide IT services and products to other businesses. R. 34, Dykhoff Decl. ¶ 4. In 2016, Presidio bought

2 The Court has federal-question jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, over the federal trade- secrets claims, and supplemental jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1367, over the state law claims. Jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims is addressed later in this Opinion. 2 Netech, another IT services provider, and assumed Netech’s employment contracts with its employees. Id. ¶ 5; Compl. ¶ 47. Among those who became Presidio employ- ees after the acquisition were Angela Splinter, Paul Brehm, and Steven Kundert.

Dykhoff Decl. ¶ 6. All three had sales roles at Netech and Presidio. Compl. ¶ 32 (Brehm was a Senior Account Manager), ¶ 34 (Splinter was an Inside Client Man- ager), ¶ 36 (Kundert was a Senior Account Manager). When these three employees were at Netech, they all signed confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements with the company. R. 49, Korreck Decl. at 2–3. These agreements provided that the em- ployees would not directly or indirectly use or disclose any of Netech’s proprietary information, other than as needed to perform their work. Compl. ¶ 39. They also

agreed that if they left Netech, the employees would not take any proprietary infor- mation with them and would return all copies of that type of information to Netech. Id. ¶ 41. Presidio says that after it bought Netech, Splinter, Brehm, and Kundert’s agreements transferred to Presidio, so the employees owed all of these contractual obligations to Presidio. Id. ¶ 47. In early 2024, Splinter, Brehm, and Kundert all resigned from Presidio in

quick succession and joined PDT, a smaller and newer IT provider that was founded by the same people who had founded Netech. Diamandis Decl. at 2; Compl. ¶¶ 55–56. Presidio alleges that during and after their departure from Presidio, Splinter, Brehm, and Kundert violated their confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements with Pre- sidio and misused Presidio’s proprietary information. Compl. at 12–23.

3 Starting with Splinter, Presidio claims that on her second-to-last day at the company, she sent an email entitled “Presidio docs” to her personal email. Id. ¶¶ 100– 01. Presidio also says that on Splinter’s last day, she deleted thousands of emails from

her work laptop that dealt with quotes and purchase orders for Presidio clients. Id. at 18. Next, Presidio asserts that Brehm emailed his personal account a spreadsheet of “December 2023 paid invoices,” which contained confidential customer pricing and margin information. Id. ¶ 72. Brehm also sent himself a customer sales presentation that contained technology and sales strategies and discount information. Id. ¶ 59. Presidio also alleges that Brehm intentionally delayed the closing dates for customer

deals in Presidio’s internal sales tracking program and that he, like Splinter, deleted thousands of emails during his final days at the company. Id. at 14–15. Lastly, Presidio claims that Kundert also delayed customer deal closing dates, deleted work emails after being told not to do so, and changed the contact information in a customer sales portal from his Presidio email to his personal email address. Id. at 20–23.

Based on these allegations, Presidio sued PDT, Splinter, Brehm, and Kundert. Presidio alleges that the Defendants misappropriated trade secrets—in violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), 18 U.S.C. § 1836(b)(3), the Illinois Trade Se- crets Act (ITSA), 765 ILCS 1065/3, and the Wisconsin Uniform Trade Secrets Act (WUTSA), Wis Stat. § 134.90(3)(a)(1)—breached their contracts with Presidio, com- mitted tortious interference, and violated their fiduciary duties to Presidio. Compl. 4 The Defendants now to move to dismiss the complaint, contending that Presidio lacks personal jurisdiction over PDT, Brehm, and Kundert, and otherwise has failed to ad- equately state a claim. Defs.’ Renewed Mot. to Dismiss. Presidio, for its part, moves

for a preliminary injunction, arguing that the Defendants have caused, and will con- tinue to cause, irreparable harm by possessing and using Presidio’s proprietary in- formation. Pls.’ Mot. for PI. II. Legal Standard Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2), a complaint generally need only include “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). This short and plain statement must “give the de-

fendant fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544

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Presidio Holdings Inc. v. People Driven Technology, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/presidio-holdings-inc-v-people-driven-technology-inc-ilnd-2025.