High Court judgment handed down in highly anticipated case – Osbourne v Persons Unknown & Ors [2023]

By Charlyn Cruz and Sam Laycock

A highly anticipated judgment has been passed down from the High Court, allowing for service via Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on a defendant as the sole means of service. Osbourne v Persons Unknown & Ors [2023] EWHC 340 (KB) concerns Ms. Lavinia Osbourne, who sought to restrict the movement of two NFTs, which were misappropriated from her cryptoasset wallet in 2022. In the judgment, Mr Healy-Pratt (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) expanded on the comments made by Lavender J in his January 2023 judgment relating to the same case. Continue reading “High Court judgment handed down in highly anticipated case – Osbourne v Persons Unknown & Ors [2023]”

High Court Judgement On Restrictive Covenants & Garden Leave

By Nic Hart

22.05.2020

The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court have held in Square Global Limited v Leonard that the absence of a garden leave set-off clause will not be fatal to a non-compete post termination restriction, touching on a the widely debated relationship between garden leave and non-compete clauses in employment contracts.

The case involved an employer’s attempts to enforce periods of garden leave and subsequent non-compete restrictions on an employee consecutively. The employee in question had resigned and in response claimed constructive dismissal on the basis that his employer had destroyed or seriously damaged the necessary relationship of trust and confidence between the parties, in breach of the implied term in the contract of employment. The High Court held on the facts that the employee was not entitled to resign summarily and by doing so, he had failed to give six months’ notice of termination and was in breach of his employment contract.

The employer sought to enforce a period of garden leave reflecting the six months contractual notice from the date of resignation, in addition to a further six months’ protection from the end date of that notice period on 11 May 2020 under the non-compete clause in the employee’s contract. This would effectively afford the employer a total of 12 months protection. The High Court were satisfied that the six month non-compete clause was pursuant to the employer’s legitimate business interests capable of requiring protection by restrictive covenants, and was reasonable, going no further than necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests.

The High Court then went on to assert as follows:

“The garden leave clause which is included in the contract exists to cater, among other matters, for a situation where [the employer] has concerns about an employee’s conduct (e.g. harvesting client information, or engaging in deceptive behavior), and so chooses to restrict the employee’s duties during the notice period. On the assumption that such concerns have reasonable foundation, it would not then be unreasonable to enforce the full period of the post termination restrictions.” (Paragraph 191)

Continue reading “High Court Judgement On Restrictive Covenants & Garden Leave”

High Court Rules On The Effect Of Confidentiality Clauses In A Settlement Agreement

By Nic Hart

21.05.2020

The High Court have held in Duchy Farm Kennels v Steels that an employer cannot avoid paying out on a settlement where an employee is in breach of a confidentiality clause, unless confidentiality is genuinely a condition of the agreement.

Here, the employer agreed to pay the employee a settlement sum in instalments in full and final settlement of the employee’s employment tribunal claims. The COT3 agreement also included:

  • a clause under which the parties agreed to treat the fact of and the terms of the agreement as strictly confidential (‘the confidentiality clause’); and
  • a warranty that the employee had not previously disclosed the facts and terms of the agreement to any other person.

The employer subsequently did not pay the final instalment, and the (now former) employee issued proceedings for payment. The employer sought a declaration that the sums were no longer recoverable on the basis of breach of the confidentiality clause in the agreement. Continue reading “High Court Rules On The Effect Of Confidentiality Clauses In A Settlement Agreement”

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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