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Warren funeral home sues former employee and his new employer for alleged trade secret violation
Dispute centers on use of client list by former employee to draw business to new employer
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Sinchak and Sons Funeral Home, 727 E. Market St., has sued a former employee and his new employer, alleging they violated Ohio’s trade secret laws when the former employee allegedly used a client list from Sinchak and Sons to try to draw Sinchak customers to his new employer.
The suit names as defendants former employee Justin R. Kaszowski of Warren and his new employer, Staton Borowski Funeral Home, 962 North Road.
The suit alleges Kaszowski worked for Sinchak and Sons for 21 years and was “intimately involved in the day to day business interactions.”
It says Kaszowski left Sinchak and Sons in September 2018 under “acrimonious” circumstances and went to work for Staton Borowski the following month.
It says Kaszowski mailed letters on Staton Borowski letterhead to clients of Sinchak and Sons “with the explicit purpose to solicit pre-planned funeral arrangements away from [Sinchak and Sons] to his new employer, resulting in substantial financial losses in excess of $25,000 and the potential for continuing loss.”
Some Sinchak and Sons customers did leave Sinchak and Sons for Staton Borowski, the suit says.
When contacted Thursday, Kaszowski said the lawsuit is false and “filed out of jealousy because I carry a strong reputation within our community as a funeral director, and funeral directors’ jobs are built on reputation.”
He said the allegations “do not apply because I crossed my t’s and dotted my i’s when I came on to notify people I was no longer at the [former] funeral home.”
Bryan Borowski, owner of Staton Borowski Funeral home, declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
The Uniform Trade Secrets Act in Ohio law says the “listing of names, addresses, or phone numbers” constitutes a “trade secret,” the suit says, adding it doesn’t matter whether the information was taken from memory or obtained in some other way.
The lawsuit also makes a claim of slander against Kaszowski, alleging he made untrue statements to clients of Sinchak and Sons regarding a change Kaszowski said would take place in the management of Sinchak and Sons.
In the event that Kaszowski should try to argue he was not an “explicit agent or employee of Staton Borowski,” the suit says Kaszowski “believed himself to be an employee of Staton Borowski” and “used the official letterhead of Staton-Borowski Funeral Homes to emphasize this fact. It is reasonable for a third party to believe his representations that he worked for Staton Borowski at the time he sent the letters,” the suit says.
When Sinchak and Sons notified Staton Borowski about Kaszowski’s actions, Staton Borowski “claimed they bore no responsibility for such actions because they allege he was not technically employed yet on the date the letters were sent,” the suit says.