Sharp Details, LLC, d/b/a Prime Appearance v. Gabriel Meneses

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedDecember 15, 2025
Docket1:25-cv-00276
StatusUnknown

This text of Sharp Details, LLC, d/b/a Prime Appearance v. Gabriel Meneses (Sharp Details, LLC, d/b/a Prime Appearance v. Gabriel Meneses) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sharp Details, LLC, d/b/a Prime Appearance v. Gabriel Meneses, (E.D. Va. 2025).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Alexandria Division

SHARP DETAILS, LLC, ) d/b/a Prime Appearance, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-00276 (AJT/LRV) ) GABRIEL MENESES, ) ) Defendant. )

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

In this diversity action,1 Plaintiff Sharp Details, LLC d/b/a Prime Appearance (“Plaintiff” or “Sharp”) brings claims against Defendant Gabriel Meneses (“Meneses”), its former employee, for breach of a non-compete and non-solicitation agreement (Count I) and for unjust enrichment (Count II). On October 20, 2025, Meneses filed a Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 48], (the “Motion”) and the Court held a hearing on the Motion on November 12, following which it took the Motion under advisement. Upon consideration of the Motion, the memoranda in support thereof and in opposition thereto [Doc. Nos. 52, 57], the arguments of counsel at the hearing, and for the reasons stated herein, the Motion is GRANTED. I. BACKGROUND The following facts are undisputed unless indicated otherwise: Plaintiff provides aircraft detailing, janitorial, and commissary services to aviation clients at airports nationwide (detailing includes including exterior touch-ups, paint protection, leather protection, as well as interior cleaning and restoration services,). [Mot.] at 7; [Doc. No. 48-2] at

1 Plaintiff filed this action on February 13, 2025; Defendant filed its Answer on April 18, 2025 [Doc. No. 10] and the Motion for Summary Judgment on October 20, 2025. [Doc. No. 48]. Briefing on the Motion concluded on November 10, 2025. [Doc. Nos. 52, 57]. The parties filed their respective opposition and reply briefs by November 10. 4. Defendant Meneses began his employment with Plaintiff on September 8, 2023, when Plaintiff acquired his previous employer where he had worked since 2007. Id. ¶¶ 14-15. Shortly after that change in ownership and as a condition of his continued employment with Plaintiff, Meneses signed a “Confidentiality and Noncompete Agreement” (the “Agreement”), which contained,

inter alia, restrictions on his ability to solicit Plaintiff’s clients or employees or provide competing services during and for one year after his employment, as detailed below. [Doc. No. 1-2] ¶¶ 16-21. Meneses was employed as a manager, but he spent somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of his time cleaning and detailing aircraft.2 His managerial responsibilities, though also disputed as to their precise scope, included communicating with clients and supervising approximately five other employees. [Doc. No. 48-1] at 7, 13. He worked primarily at two airports in the Long Island area: Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY (“FRG”), and MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, NY (“ISP”). Id. at 8. In August 2024, Plaintiff discovered that Meneses had provided services outside of his employment to two of its clients in violation of the Agreement and was terminated. Id. He subsequently admitted that breach of the Agreement and

compensated Plaintiff for his violation in an agreed-upon amount. Id. On or around September 11, 2024, Liberty Jet, a former client of Plaintiff, decided to take “in house” the services for which it had historically patronized Sharp and that same day hired Meneses as a “cleaner” in connection with that decision.3 [Mot.] at 8 With respect to its breach of contract claim, (Count I), Sharp alleges that after his termination, Meneses continued to violate the Agreement by continuing to solicit both its

2 The parties dispute several aspects of Meneses’ role, including whether he was responsible for soliciting business and how much time he spent personally detailing aircraft. See [Mot.] at 9; [Doc. No. 48-2] at 9; [Doc. No. 52-1] ¶ 4; [Doc. No. 52-2] ¶ 7. 3 Meneses does not have a job title but both he and Liberty Jet describe his responsibilities consistently with that informal title. Id. at 8–9; [Doc. No. 52-6] at 3. customers and its employees either through his competing business or as an employee of Liberty Jet. [Compl.] ¶¶ 73-79. More specifically, Plaintiff contends that Meneses violated the Agreement by (1) servicing one of its clients, Superior Jet, before being employed by Liberty Jet; (2) soliciting Liberty Jet to terminate its relationship with Plaintiff, (2) soliciting as an employee

of Liberty Jet Plaintiff’s other clients after becoming employed by Liberty Jet, and (3) recruiting one of its then-employees to work with him at Liberty Jet. Plaintiff alleges that Meneses’ contract breaches caused it to loose approximately $230,000 [Compl.] ¶¶ 58, 63; [Doc. No. 52-8] at 4. With respect to its unjust enrichment claim (Count II), Plaintiff alleges that Meneses knowingly and unjustly benefitted from his training, from the customer relationships Plaintiff developed; and from his access to the company’s customer relationships and confidential information–chiefly pricing, employee and customer lists, and techniques and materials for cleaning aircraft. [Opp.] at 24–26; see also [Compl.] ¶¶ 83-90. Meneses, for his part, contends that the Agreement is unenforceably overbroad and that he did not solicit any of Plaintiff’s clients or employees, either before or after he was employed

by Liberty Jet. Rather, he contends that after he was terminated by Sharp, he merely obtained new employment as a cleaner at Liberty Jet, which operates in one or more of the airports he previously worked at, and that he serviced all of the aircraft in question in this capacity. [Mot.] at 25. He also contends that he did not solicit Liberty Jet to end its relationship with Liberty Jet and that its decision to terminate its relationship with Plaintiff resulted from Liberty Jet’s dissatisfaction with Plaintiff’s services after Meneses was terminated. [Mot.] at 11, 22; [Doc. No. 48-1] at 21. As for the unjust enrichment claim, Meneses claims that there is nothing about what he does at Liberty Jet that involves any of Plaintiff’s protectible information Defendant has moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the Agreement is unenforceably overbroad, and in any event, there is an absence of admissible evidence sufficient for a reasonable fact finder to find that he engaged in any conduct prohibited by the Agreement or that he engaged in any conduct that would support a claim for unjust enrichment. Plaintiff

contends that genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment in Meneses’ favor on either claim. II. LEGAL STANDARD The standard for granting summary judgment is satisfied if, after a review of the record, the Court finds that there are no material facts in dispute and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56; Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250 (1986). There are no material facts in dispute “unless there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249. Sufficiency of the nonmoving party’s evidence is evaluated by whether a reasonable juror could find in their favor by a preponderance of the evidence; thus, “the mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the [party’s] position will be insufficient.” Id. at 252. Rule 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment, after

adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S. Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986).

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Sharp Details, LLC, d/b/a Prime Appearance v. Gabriel Meneses, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharp-details-llc-dba-prime-appearance-v-gabriel-meneses-vaed-2025.