American Internat. Group v. Super. Ct. Ca2/1

BACKGROUND

ILFC sued Air Lease Corporation (ALC), Plueger, and others, for, inter alia, breach of fiduciary duty and misappropriation of trade secrets.1 In the fifth amended complaint, ILFC alleges that Plueger was its chief operating officer (COO), but resigned and then became president and COO of a competing entity, defendant ALC. ILFC has access to the emails that Plueger sent and received on ILFC computers during the period of time that he was in ILFC’s employ. ALC and Plueger moved for an order compelling ILFC “to return, destroy, and otherwise make no use of any and all content of communications between Plueger and his attorneys that may be contained in any servers, computers, or other hard-copy or electronic media in their possession. [¶] This motion is made on the grounds that Plueger’s communications with his counsel were privileged . . . .”

1 Both are in the business of airplane leases and come under limited federal scrutiny.

2 Nearly two decades ago, on November 5, 1997, Plueger signed the Employee Acknowledgement, which provides in part: “I understand that my computer at ILFC and the software and files on my computer are ILFC property. I have no right to…