TLS Management v. Rodriguez-Toledo

260 F. Supp. 3d 154
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 22, 2016
DocketCivil No. 15-2121 (BJM)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 260 F. Supp. 3d 154 (TLS Management v. Rodriguez-Toledo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
TLS Management v. Rodriguez-Toledo, 260 F. Supp. 3d 154 (prd 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BRUCE'J. McGIVERIN, United States Magistrate Judge'

Alleging violations of Titles I and II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”) and various Puerto Rico statutes,1 TLS Management and Marketing Services ]LLC (“TLS”) brought this action against Ricky Rodriguez-Toledo (“Rodriguez”), Lorraine Ramos (“Ramos”), the alleged conjugal partnership between Rodriguez and Ramos, Miguel A. Santo Domingo-Ortiz (“Santo Domingo”), Mari Lourdes Cardona-Jimenez (“Cardona”), the Santo Domingo-Cardona conjugal partnership, ASG- Accounting Solutions Group, Inc. (“ASG”), Global Outsourcing Services LLC (“GOS”), Global Tax Strategy, Sandpiper LLC, and three unidentified insurance companies. Docket No. 74 (“Am. Compl.”). Defendants2 moved to dismiss the amended complaint for failure to state a claim, Docket. Nos. 78, 79, 98-100, and TLS opposed. Docket No. 111. The case is before me on consent of the parties. Docket No. 93.

For the reasons set forth below, the motions to dismiss are GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.

MOTION Tp DISMISS STANDARD

To survive a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure [157]*15712(b)(6), “an adequate complaint must provide fair notice to the defendants and state a facially plausible legal claim.” Ocasio-Hernández v. Fortuño-Burset, 640 F.3d 1, 12 (1st Cir. 2011). To do so, the complaint must set forth “factual allegations, either direct or inferential, regarding each material element necessary” for the action. Gooley v. Mobil Oil Corp., 851 F.2d 513, 514 (1st Cir. 1988). When evaluating the complaint, the court first discards any “‘legal conclusions couched as fact’ or ‘threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action.’” Ocasio-Hernández, 640 F.3d at 12 (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). The remaining “[n]on-conclusory factual allegations” are fully credited, “even if seemingly incredible.” Ocasio-Hernández, 640 F.3d at 12. The court engages in no fact-finding when considering the motion, and does not “forecast a plaintiffs likelihood of success on the merits.” Id. at 13. Rather, the court presumes that the facts are as properly alleged by the plaintiff, and draws all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs favor. Schatz v. Republican State Leadership Comm., 669 F.3d 50, 55 (1st Cir. 2012).

BACKGROUND3

TLS is a Puerto Rico limited liability company that employs tax lawyers, tax accountants, and business executives to provide tax planning and consulting services.- Am. Compl. ¶¶ 11, 24. TLS has developed tax strategies, insurance strategies, customer lists, and other confidential information, and has- stored that information on an online business account at the domain name “Dropbox.com” (“Drop-box”).4 Id. ¶¶ 60, 61. TLS’s Dropbox is for the “exclusive use” of its employees, and Dropbox requires a business account to be used “in compliance -with” an employer’s “terms and policies.” Id. ¶¶ 60, 75.

ASG employs certified public accountants and offers, among other things, tax planning and- tax preparation services. Id. ¶26. Rodriguez previously served as the “principal director” for ASG, while Ramos remains a “principal” for this company. Id. ¶¶ 13, 27, 65. In March 2012, TLS offered Rodriguez the .company’s, “finance director” .position, subject to his execution of a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement. Id. ¶¶ 12,28. Rodriguez accepted the offer, and was set to start the new position in August 2012. Id. ¶ 28. When Rodriguez accepted the offer, he also executed a subcontractor agreement between TLS and ASG (“Subcontractor Agreement”). . Id. ¶ 29.

Under the Subcontractor Agreement, ASG was required to perform various tasks for the benefit of TLS, such as developing cash flow and financial models that projected the value of TLS’s services to prospective clients. Id. ¶30. The Subcontractor Agreement prohibited ASG from disclosing confidential information, restricted the use of that information “for a purpose that is necessary in carrying out the provisions of th[e] agreement,” and required ASG to inform TLS of any unauthorized disclosures of the confidential information. Id. ¶¶ 31-33. Confidential information was defined broadly to include information like TLS’s “business methods” and “clients or prospective clients.”. Id. [158]*158¶ 32. Works made for hire under the Subcontractor Agreement were also classified as confidential. Id. ¶¶ 34, 35. The Subcontractor Agreement additionally required Rodriguez to return all confidential information upon the termination of his employment with TLS. Id. ¶ 40.

Rodriguez also executed a noncompetition agreement that “survive[d]” the termination of the Subcontractor Agreement. Id. ¶ 36. In July 2012, Rodriguez requested that he be allowed to commence employment with TLS in September 2012, and agreed to extend the Subcontractor Agreement until the beginning of that month. Id. ¶ 41. In August 2012, TLS offered Rodriguez a different position: he was offered the company’s “managing director” position, so long as he signed a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement. Id. ¶ 42. Rodriguez’s nondisclosure agreement prohibited him from disclosing confidential information (which was defined broadly to include things like TLS’s “business methods” and “clients or prospective clients”), and required him to notify TLS of any disclosure of confidential information. Id. ¶¶ 45, 47. Rodriguez accepted the offer, and agreed to begin working as TLS’s managing director in early September 2012. Id. ¶42. As the managing director, Rodriguez was issued a laptop, TLS e-mail account, and other equipment. Id. ¶50.

Alleged Unauthorized Access & Copying

Between February 2014 and January 2015, Rodriguez allegedly copied TLS’s confidential information and allowed others to do the same. Id. ¶¶ 2-4, 58, 67-78. Some of this copying required access to TLS’s Dropbox, and Rodriguez allegedly allowed others to access the Dropbox in his capacity as the “administrator” of the Dropbox account. Id. ¶¶ 2-4, 58, 67-78. The amended complaint identifies several incidents. First, in February 2014, Rodriguez “linked a device” owned by Ramos to TLS’s Drop-box, and Ramos accessed the Dropbox sometime thereafter. Id. ¶¶4, 67. Ramos has never been an employee of TLS, and Rodriguez was not authorized to give Ramos access to the Dropbox. Id. ¶¶ 67, 76. And before he resigned from TLS, Rodriguez attempted to delete Ramos as a user of TLS’s Dropbox. Id. ¶ 67. He also unlinked Ramos’s device from TLS’s Drop-box, which prevented TLS from remotely wiping the data transferred to Ramos’s device. Id. ¶ 67.

Rodriguez’s Dropbox log revealed that he linked several persons to TLS’s Drop-box account. Id. ¶ 74.

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Bluebook (online)
260 F. Supp. 3d 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tls-management-v-rodriguez-toledo-prd-2016.