U.S. Land Services, Inc. v. U.S. Surveyor, Inc.

826 N.E.2d 49, 22 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1405, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 666, 2005 WL 949961
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 26, 2005
Docket87A01-0406-CV-238
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 826 N.E.2d 49 (U.S. Land Services, Inc. v. U.S. Surveyor, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. Land Services, Inc. v. U.S. Surveyor, Inc., 826 N.E.2d 49, 22 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1405, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 666, 2005 WL 949961 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

OPINION

SHARPNACK, Judge.

In this interlocutory appeal, U.S. Land Services, Inc. (“Land Services”), Allen Harding, and Stacey Wyber (collectively, “Defendants”) appeal the trial court’s grant of a preliminary injunction to U.S. Surveyor, Inc. (“Surveyor”). The Defendants raise two issues, which we reorder and restate as:

I. Whether the trial court’s finding that Surveyor’s customer, prospect, and surveyor lists are trade secrets under the Indiana Uniform Trade Secrets Act, Ind.Code § 24-2-3-1 to -8, is clearly erroneous; and
II. Whether the trial court’s preliminary injunction is overbroad.

We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

The relevant facts follow. Surveyor is in the business of providing surveying services and survey coordination services nationwide. In general, a customer needing a survey will request a quote from Survey- or and other similar companies. Surveyor then identifies qualified surveyors in the area where the job is to be performed and requests bids from various surveyors. Surveyor selects a qualified surveyor, submits a quote to the customer, and if accepted by the customer, confirms that the job is completed satisfactorily. As part of its process, Surveyor has compiled databases of surveyors, customers, and prospective customers (“prospects”).

Harding was employed by Surveyor as national sales manager and then as vice president of its national sales division until April 8, 2003, when Surveyor terminated Harding’s employment. Wyber was employed by Surveyor as a survey processor and then as assistant manager of the national sales division until her employment was terminated on April 10, 2003. At some point, Harding and Wyber became involved with Land Services. Land Services also provides survey management and coordination services in direct competition with Surveyor.

[53]*53Surveyor filed a complaint against the Defendants, alleged claims of violation of the Indiana Uniform Trade Secrets Act and breach of noncompete agreements, and requested an injunction. After an evi-dentiary hearing on Surveyor’s request for a preliminary injunction, the trial court issued the following order:

FINDINGS OF FACT
1. Surveyor is an Indiana corporation having its principal place of business in Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana.
2. Land Services is an Indiana corporation having its principal place of business in Newburgh, Warrick County, Indiana.
3. Each corporation is duly authorized to conduct business within the State of Indiana.
4. Allen Harding resides in New-burgh, Warrick County, Indiana, as does the defendant Stacey Wyber. Harding was employed by Survey- or from March, 1998 to April 8, 2003 when his employment was terminated by Surveyor. During a portion of his employment with Surveyor, Harding was the national sales manager and a vice president of the national sales division of the company.
5. Before working for Surveyor, Harding worked at Allinder Engineering for five years as a survey manager, doing some survey field work and some marketing for that company.
6. Harding has an associates degree from the University of Southern Indiana, where he studied surveying and civil engineering. According to Harding, he is a few credits short of completing his bachelors degree at USI.
7. Harding’s responsibilities in Surveyor’s national division included managing the national survey coordination division, and survey coordination sales to clients. Stacey Wyber became employed at Surveyor on October 12, 2000, and was terminated by Surveyor from employment on April 10, 2003. Wy-ber served as a survey processor, was later promoted to assistant manager of the national division, and then was subsequently demoted back to the position of processor before being terminated as an employee of Surveyor.
8. Before working for Surveyor, Wy-ber had attended some college courses, and held various types of employment, including work as a mortgage loan processor for other employers.
9. Surveyor is in the business of surveying and survey management contracting for clients throughout the United States, and markets its services nationwide. Land Services is in the business of survey management and coordination, in direct competition with Surveyor. It has done or attempted to do survey management and coordination business throughout the United States since it began doing business in the spring of 2003.
10.Shortly after Wyber was terminated from her employment with Surveyor on April 10, 2003, she began to regularly visit Land Services’ office, and accepted employment with that company at least by April 21, 2003. Wyber has maintained her employment with Land Services since that time. Her employment has included e-mail marketing, client contact and contracting, sur[54]*54veyor location and contracting, and survey coordination and management of specific orders and survey projects. All of these functions are in direct competition with Survey- or, and are the same or similar functions and business she performed for Surveyor prior to her termination by the plaintiff. The evidence at hearing shows that Wy-ber primarily devotes her time most recently to survey processing and management.
11. Allen Harding claims no regular or other employment since his termination by Surveyor on April 8, 2003, and has drawn unemployment compensation benefits from the State of Indiana during at least a portion of this time. Harding claims to be anticipating employment with Land Services to do zoning reports, and to be soliciting business for Land Services for such business. The evidence does not show any zoning report sales by Harding throughout this time, and Harding testified he would eventually want to assume a position of Vice-President of Land Services, in charge of zoning reports, if such business may be developed for Land Services.
12. Surveyor alleges that both Harding and Wyber entered into non-competition agreements with Surveyor, and that these prevent them from employment with Land Services in competition with Surveyor. Harding admits signing his non-compete agreement, but asserts he was told at the time by a representative of Surveyor, a Vice-President, that the non-compete agreement was not enforceable, and not to worry about it.
13. Wyber did not authenticate her signature on the purported non-compete agreement produced by Surveyor and, although Surveyor president Feldbusch’s signature appears as a witness to Wyber’s on the document, Feldbusch admits he did not witness Wyber sign the document, but placed his name on the document as a witness because no one else had done so to authenticate Wyber’s signature on the paper. Surveyor produced no other witness or evidence to authenticate Wyber’s signature on the agreement, and such on Wyber’s part has not been established at this time based upon the evidence before the court.
14. Julye Harding is Allen Harding’s wife. She became employed by Land Services in April, 2003. Her prior business experience for several years had been as a manager of a retail carpet sales business.

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826 N.E.2d 49, 22 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1405, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 666, 2005 WL 949961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-land-services-inc-v-us-surveyor-inc-indctapp-2005.