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Saturday, December 12, 2009
Ind. Courts - More on: Supreme Court issues writ re Clark Circuit Judge Daniel E. Moore
A story by Matt Thacker of the Jeffersonville News & Tribune dated Dec. 11th gives some background to this ILB entry posted Dec. 9th that began:
Here is the 4-1 Dec. 7th Permanent Writ of Mandamus and Prohibition issued in State of Indiana ex rel. Crain Heating Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Inc. v. The Clark Circuit Court, et al.Thacker reports:
The Indiana Supreme Court overturned a Clark County judge’s ruling this week in a civil case involving a Jeffersonville company suing former employees for allegedly hacking into its computers to obtain information about customers.Four former employees of Crain Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigerations Inc., on Ind. 62, are named in a lawsuit that accuses them of using a customer list and bid information to undercut the company’s sales. The employees were fired or quit at different times in 2008 and 2009. They all went to work for Elite Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Inc., along Mount Tabor Road in New Albany, according to the lawsuit filed in Clark County Circuit Court in August.
A Virtual Private Network — a computer network spy program — was reportedly downloaded onto Crain’s computer. That allowed the former employees access to Crain’s private information on a daily basis, the lawsuit states.
The former employees reportedly had access to Crain’s customer list, computer calendars and bids.
They would then be able to use that information to contact Crain’s customers and offer lower bids.
The complaint states that the defendants solicited more than 9,800 of Crain’s customers and caused the company’s income to drop by about 200 percent.
In addition to being compensated for their alleged losses, Crain also sought an injunction to stop the defendants from contacting, soliciting or accepting business from anyone on its customer list.
“Former employees were hacking into their computer, so we filed an injunction to try to stop the hacking into the computer and downloading of customer information,” said Crain’s attorney, Franklin Yudkin.
He filed the motion Aug. 4 and a hearing was held on Aug. 20. Judge Dan Moore gave all parties until Sept. 14 to file additional paperwork, but an attorney for one of the defendants asked for an extension to file briefs. The extension was granted by Moore.
Yudkin says that the trial court had 30 days to rule on the motion for preliminary injunction.
On Sept. 21 after 30 days had passed, Yudkin filed a request to have the case withdrawn to move to another court, but Barbara Bratcher Haas [ILB - Clark County Clerk] determined the case had not been delayed, so she denied the request, according to court records.
On Oct. 2, Moore denied the injunction. Yudkin appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn Moore’s decision and appoint a special judge.
The Supreme Court agreed with Yudkin and vacated Moore’s ruling and ordered the court to cease jurisdiction over the case.
Clayton Culotta, attorney for one of the defendants, was out of town and could not be immediately reached for a full interview. However, he did leave a message that he disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision.
Haas said she had no comment except that she followed the Supreme Court ruling and placed a minute on the docket that the case had been withdrawn.
A request for comment from Moore left at the court was not returned.
Yudkin says the case has been transferred to Harrison County.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 12, 2009 09:20 AM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions