Court Upholds Injunction Against Former Employee

Justice C. Jones of the Court of King’s Bench has upheld an injunction that was obtained by Rick Billington, KC and co-counsel from Mathews Dinsdale Clark LLP against the former employee of his client. The injunction, which was granted on a “without notice” basis in May, 2022 was affirmed after hearing from all affected parties. The injunction permitted the search for and seizure of computer evidence held by the former employee. It was established that there had been a risk that key evidence would be destroyed or hidden if the employee had been given advance notice that he was being sued. Justice Jones granted an Anton Piller order and injunction and found that there was a strong prima facie case that the employee had improperly taken the plaintiff’s property, that there was a probability that the plaintiff would suffer harm, that there was convincing evidence that the former employee had incriminating documents in his possession and that he might destroy material before the discovery process could do its work. Seizure of evidence, including extensive computer records occurred at the former employee’s home, from his laptop computer and smart phone. After Rick Billington’s submissions, Justice Jones found that the former employee had been “less than forthcoming in connection with evidence of what happened”. The decision is found at this link: PTW Canada Ltd v Smith, 2023 ABKB 56 (CanLII)