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Northern Ireland
FW Farnsworth Ltd & Anor v Lacy & Ors [2012]
Decision Number: Legal Body: ewhc
Published on: 29/10/2015
Issues Covered:
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Background In this case the court was required to determine a preliminary issue in a claim brought by the claimant against its former employee. The employee had resigned to join a rival company. The claimant alleged that it‟s employee had collated confidential information belonging to it during his employment and passed it on to the rival.The employee had initially been employed on the basis of a contract signed in 2003 which contained no restrictive covenants. In 2009 he was promoted to a „Grade E‟ senior management position and was sent a new contract including restrictive covenants preventing him from working for rival businesses, but he did not sign or return it. The employee applied to move from the final salary pension scheme he had joined under the 2003 contract to the defined contribution scheme described in the 2009 contract, and applied for private medical insurance, which was available under the 2009 contract but not the 2003 contract. The issue for the court was whether the employee was bound by the terms of the 2009 contract, including the restrictive covenants. The employee submitted that his actions did not show that he had accepted the terms of the 2009 contract and that he had never become bound by its terms, and that he had applied for medical insurance as that was a benefit available to Grade E employees rather than a benefit arising from the contract.In this judgment Mr Justice Hildyard stated that what was required was an analysis of the actions actually taken by the employee. The court held the employee‟s application for medical benefits were referable purely to the new contract and could be considered as acceptance of the new contract terms, including the restrictive covenants.http://bit.ly/WuC1aq

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 29/10/2015
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