S. Regenbogen

The defendant employee moved for partial summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiff employer's claim seeking to enforce a Confidentiality, Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Agreement.

The employee argued the agreement was unenforceable due to lack of consideration and duress, and that the non-competition clause was overly broad.

The court granted the motion, finding that the employer provided no fresh consideration when it required the employee to sign the agreement years after his employment began.

The court also found the non-competition clause to be an unreasonable restraint of trade due to its broad temporal and spatial features.

The moving defendant sought to strike portions of a statement of claim in an employment-related action or, alternatively, obtain particulars.

The court reviewed the principles governing particulars, including the requirement that the requesting party ordinarily establish the requested information is outside that party's knowledge and necessary to plead.

Particulars were ordered for allegations concerning valuable consideration, reported information, impugned words, and defamation particulars, but not for other solicitation allegations that were not shown to be outside the defendant's knowledge.

The motion to strike was dismissed and the result on particulars was mixed, with no costs.