The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey denied a motion for partial summary judgment, ruling that the contested issue, whether a conceded breach of fiduciary duty by two individual defendants could be imputed to corporate defendants, should go to trial.

The individual defendants, former employees of the plaintiff corporation, created two entities (the corporate defendants in this suit) without the plaintiff’s knowledge and during their employment. One of the corporate defendants sold equipment at a profit to the plaintiff. One of the individual defendants was responsible for determining what equipment plaintiff purchased from both the corporate defendant and other companies. The other corporate defendant competed with the plaintiff directly.