Ziring v. Heidmann

54 Pa. D. & C.2d 254
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedJuly 1, 1971
Docketno. 2481
StatusPublished

This text of 54 Pa. D. & C.2d 254 (Ziring v. Heidmann) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ziring v. Heidmann, 54 Pa. D. & C.2d 254 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

BOLGER, J.

And now, November 26, 1971, after hearing and submission of requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law by both plaintiff and defendants, the chancellor finds in favor of defendants and against plaintiff and in so doing the chancellor, having carefully scrutinized all of the requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law, adopts defendants’ requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law as the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the court, as follows:

1. At all times material hereto, the company was engaged primarily in the business of distributing and selling to the department store, wholesale and retail trade an automatic swing for children.

2. On or about May 1, 1961, the company duly adopted a pension plan, with defendants or a predecessor as trustee, for the benefit of its employes.

3. Under article 2.9 and article 2.10 of the plan, all regular salaried nonunion employes between 30 and 56 years of age employed by the company for a period of two years are covered by the plan.

4. Under article 6.1 and article 9.1 of the plan, all contributions to the plan are made by the company.

5. Under article 2.14 of the plan, the normal retirement date at which pension benefits are payable to a covered employe and participant is 65 years of age.

6. Under article 5.1 of the plan, a sliding scale proportion of benefit pension rights are vested in an employe who voluntarily terminates his employment, depending upon the number of years he has been a participant prior to his termination of employment, payable at age 65.

7. Further, under said article 5.1 of the plan, in no event shall the trustees have the right to allow any participant values in excess of those specified.

8. Under article 5.3 of the plan, any former partici[256]*256pant shall forfeit the unpaid portion of his vested interest if he enters into competition with the company, as determined by the trustees in their sole discretion, within two years of his separation from employment.

9. In or about 1956, plaintiff entered into the employ of the company as a salesman at a salary of approximately $150 a week.

10. At the time the company adopted the pension plan on May 1, 1961, plaintiff was employed by the company as its sales manager at a salary of approximately $12,000 to $14,000 a year and qualified as a covered employe and participant in the plan.

11. Plaintiff continued as sales manager of the company until he voluntarily terminated his employment on March 4, 1970, at which time his salary was $35,000 a year. By stipulation entered into by counsel for the parties, it is agreed that plaintiff’s average earnings, based on his five highest consecutive years with the company, is $26,691.

12. Plaintiff was born on June 3, 1920, and was, on the date of his voluntary termination of employment, with the company on March 4, 1970, and at the time of the filing of the complaint in August 1970, approximately 50 years of age.

13. The fair market value of all of the assets in the account of plaintiff under the pension plan, including his share of trust income and the cash surrender value of his insurance policies applicable for plaintiff’s March 4, 1970, date of voluntary termination of employment, was the sum of $33,128.10.

14. As of the March 4, 1970, voluntary termination of employment date, plaintiff had completed eight full years of participation in the plan and, under the aforesaid article 5.1 of the plan, was entitled to a vested interest, payable at age 65, of 40 percent of his $33,128.10 account or the sum of $13,251.24.

[257]*25715. The company distributed and sold its aforesaid swing products nationally throughout the United States to such customers as J. C. Penny Company, Wilco, W. T. Grant, E. J. Korvette, Montgomery Ward, Zayres, S. & H. Green Stamps, Gibsons, Western Auto and the like.

16. At all times material hereto, until on or about March 4,1970, the firm of Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., was engaged by the company as one of its sales representatives to solicit the sale of its aforesaid automatic swing product in the New York area.

17. As a salesman for the company, plaintiff personally made sales to various customers and as sales manager personally solicited the customers of the company to purchase the swing product.

18. On March 4, 1970, plaintiff voluntarily quit his employment with the company and promptly entered into employment with Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., as a salesman, pursuant to arrangements he had made with Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., about three or four days prior thereto to go to work for it.

19. Prior to December 1969, the swing product of the company was manufactured for the company by Graco Metal Products Co., and since the spring of 1969, was also manufactured by Ajax Metal Products Company.

20. Since December, 1969, and until plaintiff quit his employment with the company, said swing product was manufactured for the company solely by Ajax Manufacturing Company.

21. The trade name of the swing manufactured by the Graco Metal Products Co. was “Swingomatic” and trade name for the swing manufactured by Ajax Metal Products Co. was “Swingmaster.”

22. The Swingmaster swing manufactured by Ajax Metal Products Co. was the same general type of baby [258]*258swing as the Swingomatic manufactured by Graco Metal Products Co. and to the lay person, they were fairly identical so that the company would distribute either swing interchangeably to customers.

23. After the Graco Metal Products Co. discontinued manufacturing the swing product for the company, it continued to manufacture the swing on its own behalf and competed with the company, soliciting and attempting to sell the same customers as those of the company, Graco knowing the customers by having shipped the swing directly to them on behalf of the company in previous years.

24. A few days prior to plaintiff’s leaving the company and entering into employment with Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., became the sales agent for the Graco Metal Products Company for its swing product in the same New York area territory where it previously had been the sales representative of the company.

25. Promptly after plaintiff quit his employment with the company and entered into employment with Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., plaintiff actively and personally solicited the same customers that company had to purchase the Graco swing product which Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., was then selling.

26. All the customers plaintiff personally solicited to purchase the Graco swing being sold by Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., had previously been the customers of the company at the time plaintiff was employed by it and his ejfforts to solicit these same accounts to purchase the Graco swing being sold by Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., were just as hard as .his previous efforts had been for the company.

27. In the one-year period immediately following plaintiff’s entering into employment with Bresner Voynow Associates, Inc., the percentage of total [259]*259business of the firm which was represented by the sale of the Graco swing product was between 15 percent and 20 percent.

28.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Pa. D. & C.2d 254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ziring-v-heidmann-pactcomplphilad-1971.