Apex Therapeutic Care, Inc. v. Factor Health Management, LLC

Full title: APEX THERAPEUTIC CARE, INC. et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. FACTOR…

Court: California Court of Appeals, Second District, First Division

Date published: Jun 25, 2007

No. B181875 (Cal. Ct. App. Jun. 25, 2007)

Opinion

APEX THERAPEUTIC CARE, INC. et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. FACTOR HEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC et al., Defendants and Respondents. B181875 California Court of Appeal, Second District, First Division June 25, 2007

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, David P. Yaffe, Judge., Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC327242.

Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan, Steptoe & Johnson, Mark A. Neubauer, Rebecca Edelson, Meredith M. Moss and Brooke H. Eisenhart for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Gordon & Rees and H. Scott Sirlin; Paduano & Weintraub and Anthony Paduano for Defendants and Respondents.

SPENCER, P. J.

Plaintiffs Apex Therapeutic Care, Inc. (Apex) and eBiocare.com, Inc. (eBiocare) filed this appeal from an order denying their application for a preliminary injunction as to defendants Factor Health Management, LLC (Factor), Robert Gardner (Gardner) and Donna Ligda (Ligda). The action is one for breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, interference with prospective economic advantage, unfair competition, declaratory relief and injunctive relief. Apex and eBiocare alleged generally that Ligda formerly worked for them. They alleged that during the course of her employment, she learned their trade secrets and had access to their employees and customers. After her employment with them terminated, Factor hired her. Apex and eBiocare alleged that while employed by Factor, Ligda and Gardner used the information obtained while in Apex’s and eBiocare’s employ to lure Apex’s and eBiocare’s employees and customers to Factor.

Apex and eBiocare also filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order and order to show cause for a preliminary injunction. The trial court granted a temporary restraining order against Factor, Gardner and Ligda and set a hearing on the order to show cause. The temporary restraining order prohibited defendants from using any information disclosed to Ligda as a result of her employment by plaintiffs, soliciting any of plaintiffs’ employees or customers, or permitting Ligda to work for Factor in competition with plaintiffs’ businesses. Thereafter, however, the trial court denied the application for a preliminary injunction.

During the pendency of this appeal, the parties engaged in settlement negotiations. On May 31, 2007, they filed a stipulation for dismissal of the appeal. Pursuant to this stipulation, the appeal is dismissed. The parties are to bear their own fees and costs. The remittitur is to be issued forthwith.

We concur: VOGEL, J., MALLANO, J.