The Minnesota Supreme Court has affirmed lower court findings dismissing a claim of tortious interference with contract by a staff augmentation company that successfully sued a former employee and his new employer for breach of a non-compete agreement. Sysdyne Corp. v. Rousslang, et al, No. A13-0898 (Minn. March 4, 2015). Sysdyne, the plaintiff at the trial court level, based its tortious interference claim against Xigent Solutions, LLC, the new employer, on an earlier Minnesota Supreme Court decision, Kallok v. Medtronic, 573 N.W.2d 356 (Minn. 1998) in which the Court affirmed judgment against the hiring company in a non-compete dispute for tortious interference, with damages measured by the attorneys’ fees expended in the successful prosecution of the lawsuit. Since Kallok, companies looking at the possible hiring of a candidate with a non-compete have had to consider the potential impact of this court-created exception to the “American Rule” which could result in the award of attorneys’ fees to the prevailing plaintiff in a non-compete lawsuit.
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