Company accuses competitor of ‘stealing’ customers

A Saipan title company yesterday asked the Superior Court to stop its competitor from soliciting its customers away and from using a secret database allegedly pirated from the same company.

Represented by lawyer Gregory J. Koebel, the Pacific American Title Insurance & Escrow, Inc. filed two motions for preliminary injunction against Security Title, Inc. owned by Kim Fell Anderson.

“If Anderson is not enjoined from using the secret database and soliciting Pacific Title’s customers away from Pacific Title, her actions will cause the Pacific Title to lose available trade secret and the customer goodwill it has spent building up,” Koebel wrote in the motion filed with the Superior Court.

The Tribune tried but failed to reach Anderson for comment. No one was answering her company phone at press time.

Anderson was formerly a shareholder and officer of Pacific Title. Court documents said she was fired for “disloyal and dishonest conduct.”

Koebel said Anderson established her own title company in 1997 immediately after she was dismissed by Pacific Title.

Pacific Title had accused Anderson of using a copy of the company’s secret database to conduct her own business. The company’s complaint prompted the Attorney General’s Office to file theft charges against Anderson last year.

The theft case was dismissed after the principal witness left Saipan prior to the scheduled trial earlier this year.

When the theft case was still pending in the court, Anderson denied using the secret database, saying she “actually destroyed it.”

Koebel said Anderson did not mention to the court that she made printout copies of the Pacific Title’s secret database.

“Anderson was seen using these copies on a number of occasions,” Koebel said.

Koebel mentioned a witness’ affidavit describing “how she caught Kim Anderson red-handed using the Pacific Title’s secret database in its printed-out paper form to do title research.”

Koebel also accused Anderson of violating the employment contract — which was upheld by a court order — prohibiting her from “actively soliciting” Pacific Title’s customers “for the two year period following her termination.”

Pacific Title complained that in May and June 1998, about a year after her dismissal, Anderson solicited at least three of the company’s customers. Anderson allegedly contacted the NMI Retirement Fund, Marianas Islands Housing Authority and Isla Financial Services to offer her services.

“The non-competition covenant signed by Anderson was meant to prevent exactly this type of situation. Anderson is using the relationships she built with Pacific Title’s customers over the years to directly compete with Pacific Title,” the motion stated.