The court heard that the employee had been unhappy at the firm for some time before she finally handed in her notice. During her employment she had sent confidential documents to her personal email account, which she refused to return after her resignation.
The court held that there was an obligation in the employee’s contract that she should not retain any documents that contained commercially sensitive information relating to the firm’s business. She was unarguably in breach of contract by refusing to hand back the documents.
Furthermore, she had a new job with a rival firm and there was a risk that the information could be exploited.
Damages would not be an adequate remedy if the documents were given to a rival because confidential information that was no longer confident
ial lost its value completely.
The court therefore granted an injunction preventing the former employee from disclosing the information.
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