The High Court has refused Net Affinity’s request to stop former employee Michelle Conaghan from working for competitor Revmac Limited, trading as Avvio, but ordered that she and Avvio must not approach, solicit or deal with Net Affinity’s existing customers for 12 months.
In an interlocutory application pending the full hearing of the case, Ms Justice Dunne found that the contract’s 12-month non-compete clause was too broad and void. It had no geographical limit and prevented Ms Conaghan from working for any business providing similar services, even where that business did not compete with Net Affinity. The judge said the clause went beyond what was needed to protect the company’s legitimate interests.
The judge nevertheless found that Ms Conaghan had retained confidential Net Affinity material when she left, including files copied from her work laptop to other devices. She also accepted that she held information about particular clients and their arrangements with Net Affinity that could benefit a competitor. The court did not determine what Ms Conaghan did with the material or why she copied it; those questions remain for trial. The judgment also said there was no evidence that she had passed such material to Avvio, and that she had not yet started work there at the time of the application.
Net Affinity had sought orders preventing Ms Conaghan from joining Avvio or assisting a competitor, restricting use or disclosure of confidential information, requiring documents and data to be returned, and barring contact with existing and recent customers. The company also sought damages, which the judge said could only be dealt with at the full hearing.
Ms Conaghan resigned on 14 February 2011 and gave four weeks’ notice. The judge found that Net Affinity’s owner, William Cotter, asked her to leave that day rather than work her notice. The affidavits differed over the details of that conversation, which the judge said could not be resolved on the interlocutory application.
The court considered a 12-month restriction on customer contact appropriate because Net Affinity’s client contracts were annual and renewable. It imposed the same restriction on Avvio, reasoning that otherwise it could be difficult to establish whether contact by another Avvio employee had arisen through Ms Conaghan. The judge declined to grant broader relief, finding that barring her employment would go further than reasonably necessary. The underlying claims remain for plenary hearing.