Court Of Appeal Of Alberta Upholds Employers Anton Piller Order

Among the Court of Appeal of Alberta's first decisions of the New Year, was its decision in Peters & Co Limited v Ward, 2015 ABCA 6 (CanLII), regarding the matter of an Anton Piller Order obtained by an employer, an investment firm. The Order permitted the search and seizure of a former employee's residences, vehicles, computer and other digital storage devices, and an office building, for property allegedly taken from the employer.

Anton Piller Orders are highly intrusive and enable a plaintiff to attend at the premises of the defendant, without notice, and take possession of records or items to which the plaintiff asserts a claim. 1 Furthermore, they are obtained ex-parte, meaning in the absence of the party against whom the order is being sought. Accordingly, courts will only grant Anton Piller Orders in circumstances that demand their imposition.

Notwithstanding the exceptional nature of Anton Piller Orders, Employers have not been deterred from regularly seeking them in cases where employees depart with confidential or sensitive company information, trade secrets or intellectual property. The recent Peters & Co Limited v Ward case can be added to this growing list of cases.

This case arose from the employer's concern that its employee had tendered his resignation to accept employment with a competitor and had taken steps to secure for his new employer, work he had commenced prior to his departure. Upon investigation, the employer concluded that the employee had, among other things:

Downloaded the employer's entire contact list to his iPhone; Printed various documents of the employer's including sensitive information about active and inactive corporate transactions, client board-level advisory presentations and documents belonging to the employer's clients; Been identified in a security video with his spouse leaving the employer's office with two carts loaded with eight full size bankers boxes and three half sized banker boxes at 10:00 p.m. on the same evening as the employer's Christmas party, which was being held at another location; and Been identified in the same security video with his spouse leaving the employers office several hours later with six full size banker boxes and other material. In light of these facts and the material before the court, the chambers judge granted the employer an Anton Piller Order.

On appeal by the defendant employee, the Court of Appeal was asked to review the decision of the chambers judge and to...