Court Opinion

ID: 9549593
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:21:46.143734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:35.494874
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
There is sufficient evidence to support the trial court’s finding that defendant West obtained from plaintiff trade secrets which he used in soliciting its customers.
In regard to the solicitation, the evidence shows that defendant West advised three customers of plaintiff that he had severed his relation as an employee of plaintiff and had gone into business for himself. Obviously, that statement was made for the purpose of obtaining their patronage at plaintiff’s expense. There is ample evidence to justify an inference which the trial court could draw to this effect. There is nothing in Continental Car-Na-Var Corp. v. Moseley, 24 Cal.2d 104 [148 P.2d 9], to the contrary. The court there merely said that an ex-employee may send out a form letter that he is engaging in business for himself. That does not mean, that under any circumstances, personally advising the former employer’s customers of the severance of his relations and that he is engaging in the same business will not support an inference that he actually asked the customers for their patronage. Here defendant personally so advised the customers and gave them his business card. He made such a call on three occasions on one of the customers. He took proposed contracts to another which were practically identical with those used by plaintiff with which he was familiar. In addition, plaintiff’s officers called him on the telephone after he had contacted the customers and charged him with having violated his contract by soliciting its customers. Defendant did not deny the solicitation. He merely replied that he had a right to and was going ahead to make a living. Such a failure to deny solicitation constituted an admission of it by an adoption of the accusatory statement. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1870 [3] ; 10 Cal.Jur., 1070 et seq.)
*208In regard to the nature of the information obtained by-defendant in his employment as being a protectible interest, the evidence is adequate to support the finding on this issue. The parties entered into an employment agreement and it was signed by defendant. Although it was void for uncertainty, nevertheless, it contained statements that constituted admissions by defendant. It is recited therein that the parties acknowledged that the “good will, continued patronage and the list of names and addresses of its customers and their special requirements constitute the principal asset of the Company.” Further that defendant in his employment “has' become or will become acquainted with many of the said customers, their names, addresses, and special requirements, and will become acquainted with other and future customers and with the other confidential matters of the Company’s business.” In addition to that the evidence shows that plaintiff’s contracts or accounts with its customers were not for merely one order or successive independent orders. They ran for a period of time. The character of the service was such that a customer would not be contracting with more than one supplier at the same time, as he might well do if only the purchase of supplies or products for resale were involved. The accounts had a definite marketable value which was in excess of the amount called for on the face of the contract, the increased value being predicated on the prospects of renewal contracts in the future. Defendant was a supervisor for plaintiff, and in that capacity, he obtained the lists of customers, made personal contact with them, considered their complaints concerning the service and endeavored to eliminate the cause for complaint. He learned from plaintiff the exact method of computing the cost of furnishing the service and the actual cost of jobs he later solicited, and the peculiarities and special requirements of the various customers. These factors bring the case squarely within the rule that customer lists are protected even though they may be obtainable where each customer may be differentiated from the other in the nature of his requirements and the value of his patronage to the former employer. The rule is thus stated: “There is no merit in this assertion (that the customer lists were not secret), since obviously it is not merely the knowledge of the identity of the customers, but the friendly contact with them which is important to the solicitors: ‘. . . they became personally acquainted with the customers of the respondent, their respective places of residence, their peculiar likes and *209fancies and other charaeteristcs, a knowledge of which would greatly aid them in securing and retaining the business of said former customers.' ” (Dairy Dale Co. v. Azevedo, 211 Cal. 344, 345 [295 P. 10].) In Scavengers P. Assn. v. Serv-U-Garbage Co., 218 Cal. 568 [24 P.2d 489], the issue was whether a former employee of a corporation engaged in the garbage collection business could be prevented from soliciting customers of his former employer. This court held that he could, stressing the fact that some of the customers, were preferred because they discarded material that could be salvaged and sold as junk. This is similar to the nature of the conditions, the premises of the persons desiring janitorial service, varying with each customer. As in that case, the case at bar involves customers who could be found from directories, as nearly everyone had garbage disposal service, but each customer had his peculiarities.
The trial court had adequate justification for concluding that defendant employee had acquired the names of his employer’s customers, the particular needs of each, what each complained of in respect to the service supplied by plaintiff, the idiosyncrasies of each, the particular needs for each job and the itemized cost thereof from actual experience while in the employ of plaintiff. Clearly the trier of fact could infer that pleasing a person with cleaning service depends largely upon the person’s personal opinion and taste of what constitutes a satisfactory job. By his contacts, and as the recipient of complaints, defendant was in a position peculiarly adapted to gaining such information. Assuming, as does the majority, that the quality of the service was a major factor in obtaining and keeping accounts, yet the holder of the yardstick is the person to whom the service is furnished and whose opinion may vary from other persons and each of the latter may vary as to each other. Defendant acquired that knowledge in the course of his employment and information which was more than a part of his learning of the work generally. Having acquired that knowledge and information while in the employ of plaintiff, he sought to apply it to plaintiff’s detriment by inducing plaintiff’s customers to forsake plaintiff and employ him to do that which plaintiff had apparently been doing to the mutual benefit and satisfaction of plaintiff and its customers before defendant interfered.
I am in full accord with the views expressed in the opinion prepared by Mr. Presiding Justice Moore and concurred in by Mr. Justice McComb when this case was before the District *210Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Two, (Cal.App.) 236 P.2d 390.
I would, therefore, affirm the judgment.
Shenk, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied July 31, 1952. Shenk, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.