Tag: Renfroe v Rigsby; Rigsby sisters

Anita Lee Gets Around To Reporting the Latest Rigsby News from Alabama

There has literally been more news lately than even the Sun Herald can pack into a daily edition. My faithful blog partner Nowdy detailed crazy Judge Acker’s latest rulings on Thursday here, here and here. Today we get Anita Lee’s report:

Two former insurance adjusters for State Farm will stand trial before a federal judge who earlier this week determined they breached employment contracts when they copied thousands of insurance records in an attempt to prove policyholders were being cheated after Hurricane Katrina.

The two, Ocean Springs sisters Cori and Kerri Rigsby, adjusted State Farm claims for their employer, independent adjusting firm E.A. Renfroe of Alabama. Renfroe sued them in 2006, alleging breach of contract and violation of the Alabama Trade Secrets Act. Continue reading “Anita Lee Gets Around To Reporting the Latest Rigsby News from Alabama”

BREAKING – Acker sends Renfroe v Rigsby to trial

With the 11th Circuit’s decision boxing him in, Judge Acker issued an Order today granting Renfroe a partial Summary Judgment on their claim the Rigsby sisters breached their employment agreement and set a pre-trial hearing for January 09, 2009.

Acker’s Order also granted the Rigsby motion for Summary Judgment and Dismissed with Prejudice the Renfroe case claiming the sisters violated the Alabama Trade Secrets Act.

Let’s leave Acker in the 11th Circuit box for a moment and move to his decision on the alleged violation of the Alabama Trade Secrets Act and the related Memorandum Opinion

There are cross-motions for partial summary judgment on Renfroe’s claim that the Rigsbys violated the Alabama Trade Secrets Act (“ATSA”), Ala. Code §§ 8-27-1, et seq., by disclosing documents illegally accessed from the computers of State Farm, the customer of Renfroe. Renfroe’s ATSA claim is plagued with problems…

First, the court is not convinced that ATSA was designed tocover a fact situation, or a document theft, like this one…Second, the Rigsbys assert that Renfroe lacks standing to assert a claim under ATSA because Renfroe did not own the stolen documents and, therefore, did not own any “trade secrets” contained within them…The Rigsbys next argue that ATSA did not govern their conduct because what they did undisputedly took place in Mississippi, and that ATSA does not apply extra-territorially…

The court finds that there is no extra-territorial reach for ATSA, and that the mere fact that the Rigsbys were employed by a company with its principal place of business in Alabama cannot lead to the conclusion that the Rigsbys’s conduct in Mississippi is governed by an Alabama law that may or may not proscribe their conduct…

For these separate and several reasons, the Rigsbys’s motion for partial summary judgment on the ATSA claim will be granted, and Renfroe’s counter-motion will be denied.

In Acker’s decision to grant Renfroe partial summary judgment on the claimed violation of the employment contract, you clearly see the box provided by the 11th Circuit. Continue reading “BREAKING – Acker sends Renfroe v Rigsby to trial”