The judge overseeing a trade-secrets theft lawsuit between two insurance sellers has denied the plaintiffs’ request to prevent the defendant from taking its employees and customers.

Partners Specialty Group, which is suing competitor Brown and Riding Insurance Services, had asked Missouri state circuit court Judge J. Dale Youngs for a temporary restraining order against Brown and Riding. Partners also requested that the order include former employees Valerie Brands-Martin and Megan Thompson, who quit last month to join Brown and Riding and were followed by several other employees. Youngs denied the request.

Partners has sued Brown and Riding, Brands-Martin and Thompson, claiming that the competing company and the former employees conspired to steal Partners’ employees and customers. Partners claims that Brands-Martin and Thompson violated non-compete and non-solicitation agreements by hiring away Partners employees and soliciting its customers. Partners said that on her last day with the company, Thompson – an assistant vice president – accessed a company database containing customer information and other Partners files she had no reason to access.

Partners also claimed that Thompson and Brands-Martin engineered the resignations of eight employees who signed on with Brown and Riding.

However, Brown and Riding claimed that the wave of resignations wasn’t part of an orchestrated attempt to poach Partners’ employees, but the result of a “toxic working environment and the unsettling speculation surrounding (Partners’) impending sale to a much larger company.” Brown and Riding claimed that the employees merely “exercised their lawful right to find a better opportunity by working for another employer.”

Brown and Riding also slammed Partners’ allegation that Thompson stole company information, saying that on her last day she was simply copying personal files such as pictures of her children.

“Plaintiff’s filing and supporting affidavits are telling for what they do not contain: evidence of misappropriation or any colorable details about the alleged confidential information,” Brown and Riding said in a court filing. “Instead, the plaintiff relies on sweeping generalizations.”


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