Kansas Supreme Court - 99536 – Wolfe Electric, Inc. v. Duckworth

months later, Global had its first oven assembled. They displayed it at the NAFEM trade
show in late September.
Pete Goodman, director of sales and equipment development for Domino's Pizza,
was at the show. Goodman recognized Duckworth as he passed the Carlson/Global booth,
so Goodman stopped to greet him. Duckworth told Goodman he could not talk to him
about the oven, but Goodman was welcome to talk to Latham. Global distributed brochures
at the show.
After discovering that Global had produced an oven in 3 months, Ron Wolfe
suspected that Duckworth had taken Wolfe Electric's trade secrets and other confidential
information to help replicate the oven. Wolfe Electric hired a private investigator to
determine what Duckworth was doing at Carlson Products because Wolfe Electric received
several calls from vendors indicating that Global was ordering the same parts used in the
Wolfe Electric oven.
One of these vendors, Ratliff Metal Spinning (Ratliff), was 1 of 400 vendors
possessing the part sought by Global. Ron Wolfe suspected Duckworth knew specifically
to call Ratliff because Duckworth had taken Wolfe Electric's vendor list.
In October 2005, Wolfe Electric filed suit against Duckworth claiming he had
breached his employment contract with Wolfe Electric, breached his fiduciary duty to it,
and misappropriated its trade secrets. In May 2006, Wolfe Electric amended its petition. It
now also alleged Global misappropriated Wolfe Electric's trade secrets and committed
tortious interference with a contractual relationship by encouraging "Duckworth to divulge
Wolfe's Confidential Information and Trade Secrets in material violation of his
Employment Agreement."
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