Huong Que, Inc. v. Luu, 150 Cal. App. 4th 400 (2007)

After Mui Luu and Cu Tu Nguyen sold Huong Que, Inc. (the “most well known, recognized and trusted brand name for traditional style Vietnamese calendars”) to Con Tu, they agreed to remain employed as the company’s “managing agents.” The sales agreement contained a covenant not to compete whereby Luu and Nguyen agreed not to engage in the publishing business “except for publishing Buddhist bible and book.” After the sale, Con Tu discovered an email exchange with a third party in which Luu attached Huong Que’s customer list and discussed forming a new calendar publishing company to be named “Pro Calendar.” Con Tu filed suit alleging breach of contract, breach of the duty of trust and loyalty, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious interference with Huong Que’s economic advantage. The trial court enjoined defendants (including several individuals associated with Pro Calendar) from: using the Huong Que customer list; distributing calendars to those customers; soliciting business from them; and selling competing calendars to them. The Court of Appeal affirmed the preliminary injunction after concluding the trial court correctly forecast probable success by Huong Que on its claims for breach of the duty of loyalty and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. Cf. Payment Systems, Inc. v. Walczer, 2007 WL 1805066 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007) (customer non-solicitation covenant is enforceable in connection with partnership dissolution); H.B. Fuller Co. v. Doe, 2007 WL 1559542 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007) (trial court ordered to unseal documents filed in connection with company’s subpoena of Yahoo! to determine the identity of employee who posted confidential information on the Internet).

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.