Westminster Ceramics Wins Temporary Restraining Order Against Formew President, Sr. Vice President, and Gwinnett Company Terra Opus
Westminster Ceramics, LLC, a tile manufacturing and distribution company with plants in Stone Mountain, GA. and Bakersfield, CA., won a Temporary Restraining Order against its former President and Chief Operating Officer, Eric H. Hunger; Westminster?s former Sr. Vice President of Sales, Thomas E. Mason; and two competing firms that Hunger organized while employed at Westminster -- Terra Opus LLC and Miles of Tiles LLC. The Order was entered on April 13, 2006.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter granted the Temporary Restraining Order from the Bench on Wednesday, April 12, 2006, after a hearing in which Westminster Ceramics presented evidence that Hunger, Mason and Terra Opus ? acting in concert with others ? had misappropriated or destroyed confidential, proprietary computer data and information belonging to Westminster. The lawsuit is based upon the Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act, the Georgia Trade Secrets Act, and the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The Temporary Restraining Order bars Hunger, Mason, Terra Opus and any employees, agents, officers, or attorneys working on their behalf from soliciting or engaging in business with The Home Depot, Inc., interfering with Westminster?s business relationships as a supplier of The Home Depot or otherwise competing with Westminster for The Home Depot?s business. The Order also bars Hunger, Mason, Terra Opus, Miles of Tiles or anyone associated with the defendants from discussing, using, disclosing or transmitting any computer data or information taken without authorization from Westminster Ceramics.
The TRO also requires the defendants to allow Westminster forensic computer experts immediate access to all of the defendants? personal and business computers to examine them and determine whether and what information Hunger, Terra Opus, Mason and others acting in concert with them may have misappropriated from Westminster.
Judge Baxter also ordered Hunger, Terra Opus and their co-defendants to return immediately anything that the defendants removed without permission or authorization from Westminster Ceramics when Hunger and Mason unexpectedly resigned their executive positions at Westminster.
Baxter issued the Order after Hunger, while testifying under oath at a Wednesday hearing in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Ga., repeatedly asserted his constitutional Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in response to questions about whether he had illegally transferred Westminster files containing company trade secrets via computer and the Internet. Hunger also asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself after being asked under oath whether he had taken or destroyed computer files and physicial files belonging to Westminster.
Westminster had asserted in its complaint, filed on March 30, 2006, in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Ga., No. 2006CV114832, that Terra Opus, Hunger, Mason and others were using Westminster?s confidential proprietary data to create an unfair advantage for Terra Opus in soliciting Westminster?s customers, The Home Depot foremost among them.
The complaint also accuses the two former Westminster executives of breaching their fiduciary duties as company officers, tortiously interfering with Westminster?s customer and vendor relationships, converting Westminster property for their own pecuniary gain, and defrauding Westminster of its corporate assets. It accuses Hunger of arranging for Westminster employees to transmit confidential computer data and information to him at a Terra Opus e-mail address while he was President of Westminster.
Westminster is seeking a permanent injunction against Terra Opus and civil remedies under Georgia?s RICO statute to include ordering defendants to divest themselves of any interest in their enterprise, restrictions on future activities or investments of defendants in the same type of business, the dissolution of the enterprise, the suspension or revocation of all state business licenses and the forfeiture of all corporate charters. Westminster Ceramics is also seeking treble monetary damages, punitive damages and reasonable legal fees.
Westminster Ceramics, which last year reported $ 55 million in sales, is a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of high quality decorative ceramic, natural stone, metal and glass tiles and other products used for walls, counters, and flooring in residential and commercial buildings. It supplies ?big box? retailers such as The Home Depot and Lowe?s as well as distributors and small retailers throughout the country. The company is located at 1445 Rock Mountain Boulevard, Stone Mountain, Ga. It employs 152 workers in Stone Mountain and a similar number in Bakersfield, CA.
Westminster Ceramics is represented by Atlanta attorney, Henry D. Fellows Jr., a partner at Fellows, Johnson & La Briola, LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Terra Opus LLC, located at 2650 Button Gwinnett Drive, Atlanta, Gwinnett County, GA. 30340, is a registered foreign corporation in Georgia. Its chairman and principal shareholder is Peter Maniscalco, who is also president of Artistic Stone, Inc., an Australian company which unsuccessfully attempted to buy Westminster Ceramics in 2005.
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