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News America Marketing In-Store12/21/2004
This is an appeal from the judgment of the trial court, rendered after a trial to the court, in favor of the defendants in an action brought by News America Marketing In-Store, Inc. (News America), against its former employee, the defendant Steven Marquis, and his current employer, the defendant Floor-graphics, Inc. (Floorgraphics), alleging (1) breach of the duty of loyalty, (2) violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (trade secrets act), General Statutes § 35-50 et seq., (3) conversion, (4) statutory theft, and (5) unauthorized access to and misuse of the plaintiff's computer system in violation of General Statutes §§ 52-570b and 53a-250 and 53a-251. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
I. BACKGROUND
The issues raised by the plaintiff involve common-law and statutory causes of action. Some of the statutory causes of action are themselves rooted in common law. All of the causes of action rest on the principal-agent relationship between Marquis and the plaintiff. They involve the tenet that agents act for the benefit of their principal in all matters connected with the agency. The primary issue of the five discrete causes of action to be resolved on appeal concerns whether the plaintiff can succeed in its quest for liability on the basis of a statutory or common-law breach against either defendant without also identifying and proving a specific harm as an element of each cause of action. Secondary issues are whether, without a specific monetary loss, the plaintiff is entitled to nominal damages, punitive damages or attorney's fees.
News America claims on appeal that the court improperly concluded that
(1) Marquis did not breach his duty of loyalty because specific loss is an essential element in a claim of breach of the duty of loyalty, (2) the plaintiff did not identify an actual loss under the trade secrets act and was not entitled to attorney's fees under that act, (3) the plaintiff suffered no actual loss in connection with its claim for statutory theft pursuant to General Statutes § 52-564, (4) the plaintiff suffered no harm or actual loss in connection with its claim for conversion, (5) the plaintiff was not entitled to attorney's fees in connection with its claim of unauthorized access to and misuse of its computer system, and (6) the court improperly concluded that the plaintiff was not entitled to nominal damages in connection with any or all of its claims.
The following facts, as found by the court in its memorandum of decision, are relevant to our resolution of the plaintiff's claims. News America and Floorgraphics are competitors in the in-store advertising and promotional products industry. Both companies are in the business of providing in-store advertising to retail chain-stores. In-store advertising companies lease space in retail stores for advertising products such as shopping cart placards, shelf advertising, floor decals and coupon dispensers, which are, in turn, sold to product manufacturers for advertising their products. The in-store marketing companies receive their revenue from the manufacturers and advertisers and pay the retail stores for the use of the space.
News America employed Marquis as a vice president of retail marketing for the north central region of the United States. As vice president, Marquis' responsibilities included contracting with retailers to acquire space in which to place News America's products. In addition, Marquis served as the chairperson of a committee that studied the way that News America paid retailers. On Monday, March 6, 2000, Marquis submitted his resignation to News America. No confidentiality, non-competition or nonsolicitation agreement existed between News Ame
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