In a nine-page order issued Tuesday, Judge Clay Land of the Middle District of Georgia rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss in a case alleging tortious interference in the beverage industry.
The defendants in the case include Califormulations LLC, Symrise Inc., Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd., and a number of individuals. The plaintiff, Refresco Beverages, alleges that Symrise used Califormulations, described as a beverage incubator, as a way to infiltrate Cott Beverages, a company that Refresco later purchased.
The nearly 100-page complaint, filed over a year ago, alleges that Symrise and Cott Beverages employees misappropriated trade secrets, using its “personnel, resources, and know-how to develop a new beverage formulation.”
Other allegations in the complaint include breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting the breach, civil conspiracy, RICO, violation of Georgia’s trade secrets statute, conversation, tortious interference, and breach of contract.
The present motion was filed by Canada-based The Green Organic Dutchman (TGOD), and challenged the court’s ability to exert personal jurisdiction over it. The court found against TGOD, holding that it can exert jurisdiction through the state’s long arm statute as it has met the standard of transacting business in the state, through its ownership interest in Califormulations.
Refresco is represented by Nixon Peabody, while TGOD is represented by Torys LLP. Symrise is represented by Sills Cummis & Gross.
