Andrew McKenzie and Ian Parker of Euroz Hartleys. Credit: Ross Swanborough/The West Australian
Euroz Hartleys has settled a legal battle with four stockbrokers who jumped ship to rival Canaccord Genuity after allegedly scouring reams of confidential information.
A scheduled case update before Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle on Monday morning was abandoned at the last minute as parties filed documents effectively ending Euroz’s injunction action.
A peaceful end to the battle had been widely expected after Euroz and brokers Lauren Walker, Brett Stapleton, Cameron Murray and Michael Bowden all hired no-nonsense legal teams in December to deal with their separation spat.
Euroz claimed forensic accountants had identified more than 60,000 pages of confidential information allegedly accessed by the departed advisers.
Euroz claims the quartet accessed the information in breach of their employment contracts with the aim of using it to further the new jobs at Canaccord.
The legal teams faced off in the Supreme Court on December 15 to argue over the broker’s application for an injunction restraining the four from contacting clients, excluding family members, or copying and transferring any client information.
But after negotiations between the parties outside Justice Tottle’s courtroom in December, Mr Stapleton, Mr Murray and Mr Bowden had joined Ms Walker in consenting to undertakings.
The undertakings include the surrender of electronic devices for examination by an independent IT expert.
It is understood the groundwork for a settlement was laid months ago and the only outstanding issue this morning was costs.
It is understood the legal battle dispute was resolved around 10am Monday — avoiding the need for the court hearing scheduled for 10.30am.
Mr Murray’s lawyer, Stephen Penrose, said in December his client’s undertakings to Euroz were in line with his employment agreement that he had always intended to honour.
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