Omnimax Int'l, Inc. v. Dowd

Omnimax Int'l, Inc. v. Dowd

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

CARPENTER, J.

Before the Court are Defendant Nick Dowd's ("Defendant" or "Dowd") Motion for Summary Judgment and Motion for Sanctions. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion for Summary Judgment is DENIED IN PART AND GRANTED IN PART. Defendant's Motion for Sanctions is DENIED.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The crux of this case is whether Dowd breached customer and employee non-solicitation provisions in the Employee Agreement Regarding Restrictive Covenants ("the Agreement") he had with Plaintiff, OmniMax International, Inc. ("Plaintiff" or "OmniMax").

OmniMax is an international building products company that manufactures aluminum, steel, vinyl, and copper products.¹ It is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Georgia.² From June 1, 1998 until February 3, 2014, [*2]  OmniMax employed Defendant, who resides in Texas.³

During Dowd's employment with Plaintiff, he held executive level management positions and acted as the Senior Vice President of Commercial Products.⁴ In this role, Defendant led the sales, marketing, and product development teams, which included Scott Bacon ("Mr. Bacon"), Plaintiffs Vice President of Commercial Sales.⁵

As an OmniMax employee, Dowd participated in its Executive Incentive Plan ("the EIP").⁶ To participate in the EIP, Dowd was required to execute an Agreement⁷ containing several restrictive covenants, two of which are directly relevant to this dispute.⁸ First, the employee non-solicitation provision provides:

Employee understands and agrees that the relationship between the Company Group and each of its Protected Employees constitutes a valuable asset of the Company Group and may not be converted to Employee's own use. Employee agrees that during his employment and for the two (2) years following the End Date, Employee will not, directly or indirectly, on Employee's own behalf or as a Principal or Representative of any other Person, solicit or induce or attempt to solicit or induce any Protected Employee⁹ to terminate [*3]  his employment with the Company or any member of the Company Group or to enter into employment with any other Person.¹⁰

Second, the customer non-solicitation provision states:

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