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Final Copy 290 Ga. 462

S11A1435. ROBBINS et al. v. SUPERMARKET EQUIPMENT SALES, LLC. S11A1583. SMITH v. SUPERMARKET EQUIPMENT SALES, LLC.

BENHAM, Justice. Appellee Supermarket Equipment Sales, LLC (SES) is a company that, among other economic endeavors, makes and supplies outer components or "skins" for grocery store refrigeration units. SES was formed on October 13, 2009, when its immediate predecessor Supermarket Equipment Resale, Inc. (SER) was foreclosed upon by its bank. At the time of foreclosure, a deal was structured such that SES leased, with an option to buy, SER's real estate from the foreclosing bank, and SES took out a loan from the foreclosing bank to buy SER's assets. As part of the deal, the original owner of SER remained personally liable for the note between SES and the foreclosing bank. According to written corporate minutes dated October 13, 2009, the SER board of directors, as its final act, assigned its trade secrets and proprietary information to SES. These trade secrets and proprietary information allegedly included a library of

drawings of refrigeration skins SER had accumulated in the course of eight years conducting its business. Appellant Charles Daniel Robbins worked for SER prior to its foreclosure. He left SER and began his own refrigeration skin business, appellant TCD Squared d/b/a Supermarket Specialty Products (SSP), in or about February 2009. At SSP, Robbins would take orders, draw the skins to specification, have the skin pieces manufactured, and hire contractors for installation. Robbins paid Custom Metal to manufacture the metal pieces used for the skins based on SSP drawings. During the course of the litigation, Custom Metal produced 1,500 drawings it received from SSP. Appellant Robbins testified that he drew the 1,500 drawings. SES, however, alleges these 1,500 drawings are its proprietary information which it obtained when SER foreclosed. Appellant David Jensen was employed by SER and then SES over a period of approximately eight years, from 2002 to June 2010. Upon leaving SES, Jensen began working for SSP in June 2010. While at SER/SES, Jensen was the director of operations and managed the personnel in the department which made drawings for re-skinning. Jensen testified that he reviewed the 1,500 drawings in order to assist Robbins.
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Appellant David Smith worked as a comptroller and accountant for SER and SES. He also did some book-keeping for SSP during and after his employment with SER and SES, but he was never an employee of SSP. During the litigation, SES hired a forensic investigator to investigate evidence of misappropriation by examining SER/SES computers. The forensic investigator found that on April 8, 2009, prior to the SER foreclosure, an e-mail was sent from Smith's work e-mail account to a Yahoo account1 owned by Smith. The e-mail contained an attachment of 44 drawings stamped as belonging to SSP and initialed by appellant Jensen. Trevor Breedlove, who worked for SER and SES as an executive, testified at the injunction hearing that he examined the drawings and found that none of the 44 drawings were identical to drawings owned by SER/SES, but he testified that the drawings were "similar looking" to SER/SES documents. Appellant Smith did not testify at the preliminary injunction hearing, and there was no evidence presented on how Smith obtained the 44 drawings or what he did with them after sending them to his Yahoo account.

Yahoo is an internet service provider which allows individuals to maintain personal e-mail accounts. 3

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SES sued appellants for injunctive relief under the Georgia Trade Secrets Act (GTSA), OCGA

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Georgia Law