Sabina v. Dahlia Corp.

650 So. 2d 96, 1995 WL 29052
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 27, 1995
Docket94-01954
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 650 So. 2d 96 (Sabina v. Dahlia Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sabina v. Dahlia Corp., 650 So. 2d 96, 1995 WL 29052 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

650 So.2d 96 (1995)

Osvaldo R. SABINA and Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company of Tampa Bay, Inc., a Florida Corporation, Appellants,
v.
DAHLIA Corporation, a Florida Corporation, Appellee.

No. 94-01954.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

January 27, 1995.

Robert M. Daisley and Lawrence P. Ingram of Annis, Mitchell, Cockey, Edwards & Roehn, P.A., Tampa, for appellants.

John P. Holsonback of Fuller Swindle & Holsonback, P.A., Tampa, for appellee.

*97 DANAHY, Acting Chief Judge.

We review a nonfinal order granting an injunction to enforce a covenant not to compete in an employment contract for an insurance agent's services. The appellee, Dahlia Corporation [Dahlia], sued its former employee, appellant Osvaldo Sabina, and Sabina's new employer, appellant Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company of Tampa Bay, Inc. [HRH], for breach of the covenant when four of Dahlia's customers transferred their insurance business to HRH after Sabina began working there. We reverse because the evidence does not support the finding of a breach of the covenant.

FACTS

When Sabina started as an agent for Dahlia, they entered into an employment contract which contained a covenant not to compete.[1] The employment agreement also provided that if Sabina breached the covenant, Dahlia would be entitled to a temporary and permanent injunction in addition to other available remedies.

Just before Sabina left Dahlia to go to work at HRH, he suggested to his boss, Richard Russo, that Dahlia sell certain accounts to HRH, specifically those of customers with whom Sabina had developed close working relationships. When Sabina changed jobs he suggested to his new boss at HRH, John Snow, that Snow contact Russo at Dahlia to discuss buying certain accounts. Snow and Russo agreed to meet to talk about Dahlia selling some accounts to HRH at a mutually agreeable price. In anticipation of the meeting between his former and current employers to negotiate this transfer of accounts, Sabina prepared from memory a list of the twelve accounts that he was very close to and which he thought Dahlia might sell. Sabina gave the list to Snow. The list included twelve customers' names, the estimated amount of annual commission earned for the agent, and the approximate expiration date of each customer's policy. The list thus disclosed important confidential information about each account. At the meeting Dahlia and HRH could not agree on a price so Dahlia refused to transfer the accounts. Snow put the list away and never showed it or gave it to anyone else.

Sometime after these negotiations fell through, three of Sabina's former customers contacted him to request his assistance in procuring insurance for them because Dahlia either would not or could not help them. Sabina told these former customers that if Dahlia provided a renewal quote for them, he could not help them due to the existence of the covenant. Dahlia did not provide renewal quotes for any of them, so Sabina, rather than have these customers go elsewhere, procured replacement insurance coverage for them. A fourth customer of Dahlia, that had dealt with Sabina while he was with Dahlia, switched its business to HRH but did not contact Sabina.

Dahlia sued Sabina for breach of the contract's covenant and HRH for tortious interference with a contractual relationship. A third count named both Sabina and HRH and alleged theft of trade secrets based on Sabina's preparing and divulging the customer list to Snow for the meeting with Russo. Dahlia moved for a temporary injunction and *98 a hearing was held on the motion. At the hearing witnesses, including Sabina himself, were available to offer testimony but the trial court did not hear any live testimony. Instead the trial court relied solely on the following documents: Dahlia's verified complaint, six affidavits submitted by Sabina and HRH, and the deposition of John Snow. The six affidavits submitted included one from Snow and one from Inez Roberson, the HRH employee who handled the customer who switched without first contacting Sabina.[2] The other four were from each customer who switched from Dahlia to HRH after Sabina began working there. In each affidavit, the customer stated that Sabina never solicited its business on behalf of HRH. The three who had contacted Sabina at HRH said they had decided to deal with HRH only after Dahlia would not or could not help them. The fourth customer stated that he transferred his insurance business to Inez Roberson at HRH because of personal ties to her and because she had repeatedly solicited his company's commercial insurance business over the years. This customer also stated that Sabina did not solicit him nor was he involved in the decision to move the account to HRH. Snow's deposition related the events surrounding the creation of the customer list for the failed negotiations and how he and Sabina discussed methods to avoid violating the covenant. He also stated that the customer list was never used for any purpose other than for the meeting with Russo.

After both sides had an opportunity to file memoranda of law on the issues, the trial judge issued the temporary injunction forbidding Sabina and HRH from further breaching the covenant by calling upon, soliciting, or procuring insurance for Dahlia's customers; utilizing confidential information or trade secrets of Dahlia's; or revealing or divulging any confidential information or trade secrets of Dahlia.[3] The judge set the injunction bond at $500.

DISCUSSION

We turn first to the issue of Sabina's solicitation of the customers as a violation of section 4(a) of the covenant. We have before us the same documents considered by the trial judge as the evidentiary basis for the injunction: Dahlia's verified complaint, Snow's deposition, and the six affidavits. Because there were no disputed factual matters at issue, we review the injunction de novo. See Operation Rescue v. Women's Health Center, Inc., 626 So.2d 664 (Fla. 1993) (permanent injunction). Aside from the bare allegation in the complaint tracking the language of the covenant that Sabina "directly *99 and indirectly" solicited Dahlia's accounts and customers, each customer involved insisted by sworn affidavit that Sabina did not call them urging transfer of their business to HRH. One said that he switched to HRH without involving Sabina at all, and the other three said it was they who sought out Sabina and not the other way around. According to these three customers, when they called Sabina, he warned them that he could not and would not be their insurance agent if Dahlia provided them a renewal quote. Each customer stated that he or she had decided to switch insurance agents only after Dahlia would not or could not help him or her.

At the hearing the trial judge and the parties' attorneys discussed the affidavits of the customers, each of which stated that the customer had called Sabina at HRH. The judge then asked Sabina's attorney how the customers knew where Sabina was located in order to contact him after he left Dahlia. Sabina's attorney answered by remarking that since Sabina was a personal friend of these customers he had merely called them before his departure from Dahlia to tell them that he was leaving Dahlia and moving to HRH. Sabina's attorney argued that Sabina had the right to tell his personal friends about such an event in his life.

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650 So. 2d 96, 1995 WL 29052, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sabina-v-dahlia-corp-fladistctapp-1995.