Alexander Fisher

Partner Alexander Fisher defeated an Order to Show Cause for a Temporary Restraining Order in a contentious business dispute in Federal Court, District of New Jersey.  Gartner + Bloom’s client, a former employee of the Plaintiff, left his job and thereafter started a competing landscaping business. The Plaintiff/former employer grew angry and began a campaign of harassment against the client, defaming him repeatedly to potential customers and regulatory authorities.  Gartner + Bloom therefore filed a defamation action against the former employer in New Jersey Superior Court, which is still pending.

The former employer then countered by filing his own complaint in Federal Court based upon a federal statute and a signed non-disclosure agreement, concurrently seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the client from working with many of his customers and force him to disgorge any payments he had received from such customers.

At the hearing that occurred recently, Mr. Fisher was able to show that the terms of the non-disclosure agreement did not apply to this situation, and that the federal statute in question was likely not applicable to the allegations Plaintiff was asserting.  Mr. Fisher successfully argued that even if Plaintiff’s claims were successful, they were compensable by money damages.

The Federal Court ruled that Plaintiff failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits, and also stated that because any potentially successful claim was compensable by monetary damages, there was no showing of an irreparable injury.  As such, the Court denied the application for a restraining order.