Sybron Corp. v. Wetzel

Sybron Corporation (plaintiff) manufactured and relined glass-lined vessels in New York. Sybron’s competitors included De Dietrich (USA) (Dietrich) (defendant). Alfred Wetzel (defendant) was a former Sybron employee who worked for Sybron for 34 years until his 1974 retirement, at which time Wetzel moved to Florida. In early 1977, Dietrich lured Wetzel to supervise Dietrich’s new facility in New Jersey. Dietrich previously had reglassed many Sybron vessels at Dietrich’s French facility and intended to use its New Jersey facility to further compete with Sybron. Indeed, Dietrich’s sales staff already solicited and won business from a major New York-based Sybron customer. Upon learning of Wetzel’s impending employment by Dietrich, Sybron sued Dietrich and Wetzel in New York state court, asserting unfair competition and misappropriation claims and seeking to enjoin Wetzel from working for Dietrich and from revealing Sybron trade secrets. Dietrich moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it was not subject to personal jurisdiction in New York. Sybron contended that New York jurisdiction was proper under New York’s long-arm statute, Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) § 302(a)(3), which authorized personal jurisdiction if a nondomiciliary committed a tort outside New York that caused injury in New York. Per Sybron, § 302(a)(3) applied even if the predicate tort had not yet been committed if the nondomiciliary had a conscious plan to commit the tort. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss, but the appellate division reversed. Sybron appealed.