Abattis Obtains Preliminary Injunction Against Defendants in King County, Washington State Court; Court Finds that Certain Defendants Breached Fiduciary Duties to Company in The...
ACCESS Newswire
Vancouver, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 29, 2014 / Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (the "Company" or "Abattis") (ATTBF) (CSE:ATT), a specialty biotechnology company with capabilities through its wholly owned subsidiaries of cultivating, licensing and marketing proprietary ingredients, bio-similar compounds, patented equipment and consulting services to medicinal markets in North America, wishes to advise its shareholders that on Monday December 15th the Company obtained a preliminary injunction from the Washington state court in King County against Herbal Analytics, LLC, James Baxter, Kaleb Lund, Lauren Hilty, and Erin Leary (the "HA Defendants"), Affinor Growers, LLC, and Nicholas Brusatore. Affinor Growers, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of defendant Affinor Growers, Inc. The Court's order implementing the preliminary injunction was entered December 23rd.
In its detailed ruling, the Court found that PhytaLab developed proprietary processes and procedures that enabled it to achieve a favorable position in the field of quality-assurance testing and product development. This proprietary information has independent economic value and is a trade secret of the Company. In the summer of 2014 while employees and members of PhytaLab and consultants with Abattis, Lund and Hilty in concert with Baxter and Brusatore, worked to form a competing business--Herbal Analytics. Following their resignations from PhytaLab, the defendants sought access to the trade secrets in order to facilitate Herbal Analytics I-502 laboratory certification application to the State of Washington. "Given these detailed findings of fact, we are pleased that the court recognized the innovation and creativity embodied in PhytaLab's proprietary information," said Mike Withrow, Company CEO. "We intend to fully recover from the defendants monetary damages, attorney's fees, and seek additional injunctive relief as necessary to correct for the defendants' duplicitous actions."
In its conclusions of law, the court held that: (1) Lund and Hilty had a duty to refrain from using confidential PhytaLab information and documents for the benefit of any entity other than PhytaLab and that Abattis/PhytaLab are likely to demonstrate at trial that Lund and Hilty breached this obligation; (2) PhytaLab's confidential information and documents used for making application of I-502 accreditation constitute protectable trade secrets and that Abattis/PhytaLab are likely to demonstrate at trial that the defendants' misappropriated these trade secrets; and (3) Abattis/PhytaLab are likely to demonstrate at trial that Lund and Hilty have willfully breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty and care to PhytaLab and have materially breached their obligations to Abattis under certain consulting agreements in establishing a competing business.
Given these findings, the court granted the Company's request for a preliminary injunction against Lund, Hilty, Herbal Analytics, LLC, Affinor Growers, LLC, Baxter, Brusatore, Leary and anyone working in concert with some or all of them--for example, Affinor Growers, Inc.--ordering that they: (a) shall cease and desist from any and all use of PhytaLabs trade secrets and confidential information and documents; (b) are restrained from copying, transferring, using or disclosing to any other person or entity any documentation taken from PhytaLab; (c) shall retain and preserve all existing documents and files that mention, refer to, or are derived from PhytaLab, PhytaLab and Abattis' customers, or PhytaLab and Abattis' prospective customers; and (d) shall keep a detailed, complete, and accurate accounting of its business operations.
"Given the court's findings and the information we have received to date, it is apparent that the defendants sought access to PhytaLab and Abattis trade secrets and confidential information for use in establishing a competing business," said Mr. Withrow. "All of these activities happened at the time of Lund and Hilty's employment and membership in PhytaLab and while under contract as consultants to Abattis. We trusted and elevated these individuals to positions of leadership and fiduciary responsibility and, in return, they conspired against Abattis and PhytaLab in a coordinated effort to steal value from the Company's shareholders for their own selfish gain." Mr. Withrow went on further, "We simply will not and cannot tolerate such duplicity and will use every legal remedy available to us in order to regain shareholder value." With regard to the Company's shareholders, Mr. Withrow stated that "Throughout this process we intend to maintain the high level of transparency and value that we promised from the very beginning of Abattis and PhytaLab. While we welcome spirited competition, we will never allow the Company's shareholders to be gamed by schemers for their own unlawful gain."
The Company will update its shareholders as further developments arise.
About Abattis Bioceuticals Corp.
Abattis is a specialty biotechnology company with capabilities through its wholly owned subsidiaries of cultivating, licensing and marketing proprietary ingredients, bio-similar compounds, patented equipment and consulting services to medicinal markets in North America. The Company is positioned to capitalize on the fast growing trend toward marijuana legalization in the United States and for medicinal use in Canada and international jurisdictions, by supplying and partnering with companies to employ its mass cultivation systems, extraction equipment/technology, and strategic marketing support to licensed growers. The Company also has an extensive pipeline of high-quality products and intellectual property for the rapidly expanding botanical drug market. We follow strict standard operating protocols, and adhere to the applicable laws of Canada and foreign jurisdictions. For more information, visit the Company's website at: www.abattis.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Mike Withrow" Michael Withrow, President & CEO
For further information, contact the Company's at (604) 336-0881 or at news@abattis.com.
NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIESEXCHANGENORITSREGULATIONSSERVICES PROVIDER HAVEREVIEWED OR ACCEPTRESPONSIBILITYFOR THEADEQUACY ORACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks various risk factors discussed in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.
