Paramount Bank v. Hominsky

• Decision Date: 23 December 2021
• Docket Number: 4:21-cv-01284-SRC
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri
• Parties: PARAMOUNT BANK, Plaintiffs, v. JUSTIN HOMINSKY, Defendants.

PARAMOUNT BANK, Plaintiffs,
v.
JUSTIN HOMINSKY, Defendants.

No. 4:21-cv-01284-SRC

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division

December 23, 2021

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

STEPHEN R. CLARK, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.

Paramount Bank hired Justin Hominsky as a loan officer. As part of his employment contract, Hominsky agreed that if he left Paramount, he would not solicit his former co-workers to leave nor solicit them to join another company. Hominsky resigned from Paramount this past fall and took a similar position with another lending company. Paramount claims that Hominsky breached their contract by soliciting Paramount employees to join him at the other lender; so, Paramount filed this lawsuit and sought a temporary restraining order. Though before the Court heard the TRO, the parties stipulated to the entry of two court orders requiring Hominsky to, among other things, comply with the no-solicitation term of the contract. Hominsky then moved to compel arbitration.

I. Background

Hominsky signed an employment contract with Paramount and began work in May 2019. Doc. 1-1; Doc. 28 at p. 2. This contract set out the terms of the parties' employer-employee relationship, including that:

[Hominsky] agrees that during his[ ] employment with [Paramount] and for a period of twelve (12) months after the cessation his[ ] employment with [Paramount], [Hominsky] will not on behalf of himself[ ] or on behalf of any other individual, organization, or entity, directly or indirectly solicit any of the Bank's employees

1

with whom [Hominsky] worked in the six (6) months preceding [Hominsky]'s cessation of employment, to leave [Paramount] or form or join another organization or entity

Doc. 1-1 at p. 5.

After Hominsky resigned, Paramount alleges that he breached this portion of the employment contract by soliciting Paramount employees to join him at another company. Doc. 1 at ¶¶ 5, 27. Paramount sued Hominsky and immediately sought temporary injunctive relief. Docs. 4, 5, 8. After entry of the second agreed order mentioned above, Hominsky moved to compel arbitration, Doc. 24, invoking the arbitration clause contained in the employment agreement:

... In the event of any dispute between the Parties concerning or arising out of their employment relationship or this Agreement, the Parties agree that such dispute shall be resolved through binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of AAA Arbitration.. . Notwithstanding any AAA rule to the contrary, the parties will share equally in the cost of such Arbitration, and shall be responsible for their own attorneys' fees, provided that if the Arbitration is brought pursuant to any statutory claim for which attorneys' fees were expressly recoverable, the Arbitrator shall award such attorneys' fees and costs consistent with the statute at issue

The arbitrator, and not any

...