Ironically, the same supervisor, accused of being bisexual, previously had been reported for sexually harassing a female employee. The employee in Prescott claimed that his supervisor touched him, threatened his employment status, and made implicit promises of advancement. None of the federal courts of appeal besides the Fifth Circuit has addressed the issue of same sex harassment. Because of the erratic decisionmaking and the lack of appellate court guidance on this issue, employers should promptly investigate all reported incidents of sexual harassment, regardless of the sex of the parties involved, and take appropriate corrective action. The Illinois Appellate Court has ruled that former employees may not misappropriate confidential customer lists even if they have committed the lists to memory.
Automotive jobbers sell tools to end users.
Customer lists of automotive jobbers were compiled by Stampede salespersons who called end users and asked for the name of their automotive jobber. Once a new customer was found, the customer list was kept confidential. Salespersons signed employee confidentiality agreements upon employment. Second, the court ruled that the customer list was misappropriated because the former employees admitted that they redeveloped the lists by remembering names and locations of some of the Stampede customers. The court rejected the former employees' argument that misappropriation required actual theft or conversion of physical documents embodying the trade secret information.