Judge grants temporary restraining order against former BOKF employee

DENVER — A U.S. District Court judge in Denver has granted a temporary restraining order against a former employee of BOKF N.A., whom the bank accused of violating trade secrets.

But Chief U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer denied a similar request for a restraining order against Sunflower Bank N.A.

BOKF filed a lawsuit against former senior business-development manager Kelly Condon and Sunflower on April 9. Condon announced on March 20 his intention to resign from BOKF and take a business-development position at Sunflower, providing two weeks’ notice.

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But BOKF alleges that Condon used confidential, proprietary and secret information to benefit his new position at Sunflower. BOKF alleges that Condon transferred contact information for more than 130 BOKF customers and “immediately used this information to solicit over 130 BOKF customers and customer referral sources to work with him after his move to Sunflower,” the lawsuit said.

BOKF sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against both Condon and Sunflower, seeking to enjoin the defendants against “possessing, using, disclosing, disseminating, distributing, or copying BOKF’s trade secrets and confidential information” and “soliciting any current client of BOKF’s through the use of confidential information belonging to BOKF,” according to the court filing.

The court found that BOKF had not demonstrated a likelihood of success on its allegations against Sunflower, either for the trade-secrets claims or its claim that Sunflower had aided and abetted breach of fiduciary duty by Condon.

“ … plaintiff has not established that Sunflower knew of or cooperated in a breach of fiduciary duty by Mr. Condon,” the court found. “In fact, the Court determined at the hearing that the evidence indicated just the opposite, as [Sunflower chief human resources officer] Ms. [Laura] Frasier instructed Mr. Condon to abide by his employment agreements with plaintiff.”

But the court found differently regarding BOKF’s claims against Condon, finding that he “was not acting for plaintiff’s benefit when he used plaintiff’s customer and referral source contact information in his personal email account to send emails to plaintiff’s customers and referral sources about his resignation.”

The court granted an injunction and temporary restraining order against Condon, prohibiting him from “disclosing, disseminating, or copying any client or referral source contact information that he acquired, or that may exist on his personal telephone, as a result of his employment with plaintiff.”

The court also ordered that Condon allow a forensic accountant to make a mirror image of relevant date ranges of his Hotmail account and that he return any business cards or copies of business cards obtained as a result of his employment with BOKF.

BOK Financial operates a branch in Boulder and last fall completed its almost $1 billion takeover of Colorado Business Bank. Denver-based Sunflower Bank operates branches in Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont.

Jeanne Lipson, vice president and marketing manager for Sunflower, told BizWest in an email last week that the bank “does not comment on matters related to potential litigation.”