Fada International Corp. v. Cheung

• Decision Date: 30 December 2008
• Docket Number: 4911.
• Citation: 57 A.D.3d 406,870 N.Y.S.2d 23,2008 NY Slip Op 10194
• Parties: FADA INTERNATIONAL CORP., Appellant, v. ROWENA CHEUNG et al., Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

57 A.D.3d 406

870 N.Y.S.2d 23

2008 NY Slip Op 10194

FADA INTERNATIONAL CORP., Appellant, v. ROWENA CHEUNG et al., Respondents.

4911.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department.

December 30, 2008.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles E. Ramos, J.), entered December 5, 2007, which granted defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff does not allege that its former employee, defendant Cheung, stole its customer list or any confidential information. Rather, it maintains that the use of its client contact information, of which Cheung was aware from her 20 years on the job, to solicit business for her new company constituted a misappropriation of confidential information. Defendants did not steal the information, and since plaintiff's "customers are readily ascertainable outside the employer's business as prospective users or consumers of the employer's services or products," the trade secret protection does not attach (Leo Silfen, Inc. v Cream, 29 NY2d 387, 392 [1972]). In the absence of a restrictive covenant, the...