Assignment Task
Duty of confidence question
Hagar is a furniture designer who has worked as the head of furniture design with a major manufacturer ABCD Pty Ltd “ABCD” for 20 years. She develops, draws, designs and sources ideas for new furniture, locally and internationally.
ABCD makes the furniture Hagar’s designs for their clients. Hagar’s skills and knowledge are important to the company. Hagar maintains a specialist encrypted database. This database includes draft and final drawings and specifications for client furniture designs, the costings for the manufacture of clients’ furniture, the contacts Hagar used in the project, material providers, and manufacturers of specialist materials, used in each furniture item made and sold by ABCD. Only Hagar, her assistant designer Kalilia, and senior management of ABCD have access to this database. This database includes draft and final drawings and specifications for client furniture designs, the costings for the manufacture of clients’ furniture, the contacts Hagar used in the project, material providers, and manufacturers of specialist materials, used in each furniture item made and sold by ABCD. A client project often starts two years before the furniture is released to the public.
Recently, the project involved a new furniture range for a major international retailer Haakon Industries. Kalilia has been involved for nine months and has assisted in designing and developing the furniture range.
Kalilia is approached by a competing firm Gunhilda Furniture to be head designer. They believe she will give them a competitive edge because of Hagar’s contacts within the industry and clients. She accepts their offer as there is no career progression at ABCD. Before she leaves ABCD, she downloads a copy of Hagar’s specialist database to an external hard drive, as it will be useful to her in her new job.
Kalilia commences working at Gunhilda Furniture. She approached clients including Haakon Industries saying that she could complete their project more cheaply and quickly without any changes to the drawings or specifications of the range needing to be made. Harkon Industries and other clients contacted Hagar about Kalilia’s claim.
Explain to ABCD whether an action for breach of the duty of confidence in equity exists against Kalilia and Gunhilda Furniture. Explain using appropriate cases from the lecture slides and Chapter 3 of the textbook p 99-118.
In your answer do not discuss, actions arising under contract law either as express or implied terms, restraints of trade in employment law, privacy, company law, crime or other legislation.