Peter Cavanagh

The plaintiff, Husky, brought an action against its founder, Robert Schad, his new company Athena, and others, alleging misuse of confidential information relating to injection molding machines.

Husky claimed that Athena accessed confidential information from Husky machines placed at a third-party facility (Niigon) and used it to develop competing machines.

The defendants argued the claims were statute-barred, that most issues were settled during prior negotiations, and that no confidential information was misused.

The court dismissed Husky's claims, finding they were statute-barred as Husky knew of the material facts more than two years before commencing the action.

The court also found that the commercially available machines were not confidential, and that Athena did not make material use of any confidential information from the prototype machines.

Athena's counterclaim for abuse of process and injurious falsehood was also dismissed for lack of evidence.

The moving parties sought leave to appeal an interlocutory order striking out an affidavit filed in opposition to an application to recognize and enforce a foreign arbitral award.

The motion judge had struck the affidavit on the basis that it was clearly irrelevant and scandalous.

The court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal, finding no conflicting decisions on matters of principle and no good reason to doubt the correctness of the motion judge's order.