Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408250042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
S&D Coffee is asking for $450,000 in damages and an injunction forbidding Dwight E. Hodges from selling coffee for a competing company that he started this month.
Hodges went to work for S&D Coffee Inc. in June 1986, according to the suit filed in federal court in Roanoke this week.
According to the suit, S&D asked Hodges to sign a contract agreeing not to disclose company secrets and not to work for a competing coffee distributor for at least a year after leaving the company.
In July, Hodges lost his job at S&D when company officials suspected that he was misappropriating company funds and inventory for his own use, according to the suit.
The complaint says that since July, Hodges, "in flagrant violation" of his proprietary contract, has used S&D trade secrets "to facilitate his entry into the field of coffee and beverage sales without having to invest the time, effort and money which S&D has expended in the development of its business."
On Aug.12, according to the suit, Hodges and some partners started Supreme Coffee Inc. of Virginia, which competes with S&D.
Hodges solicited business from S&D clients, including New Yorker Deli, Williamson Road Pancake House, Jefferson Street Pancake House and Catawba Grocery, the suit says.
Reached at his home Tuesday evening, Hodges denied misusing any of S&D's money or inventory, but admitted opening Supreme Coffee.
"It's a shame that an independent businessman can't go out and open a business for himself," he said.
by CNB