United States Second Circuit

In a suit alleging improper solicitation of a client's account where that account and its associated "good will" had earlier been transferred to the plaintiff by the defendant and others, the district court's judgment insofar as it found the defendant liable to the plaintiff is vacated and the matter remanded for the correct application of the scope of the Mohawk doctrine in light of Bessemer Trust Co., N.A. v. Branin, 16 N.Y.3d 549, 949 N.E.2d 462, 925 N.Y.S.2d 371 (2011), which held that while a seller of a business and its good will may not contact his former clients directly to seek to attract them to his new firm, he may, in response to inquiries made on a former client's own initiative, answer factual questions.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/05/2012
• Published 04/05/2012

Judges

• Sack

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Donald I. Strauber, Louis P. DiLorenzo