Sunrise Brokers LLP v Rodgers
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE LONGMORE
- LADY JUSTICE GLOSTER
- LORD JUSTICE UNDERHILL
Areas of Law
- Employment Law
- Contract Law
- Civil Procedure
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The court addressed whether an employee who signed a new employment contract with a competitor could terminate their existing employment contract unilaterally and whether post-termination restraints could be enforced without salary payments. The employee stopped attending work, and the employer sought to enforce post-termination restraints. The court held that the employee’s contract had not been terminated, prohibiting him from joining the competitor until a specified date. The court did not require salary payment during the non-compete period as it did not compel the employee to return to work.
In this action the Claimant (“Sunrise”) seeks a declaration that the Defendant (“Mr Rodgers”) remains in the employment of Sunrise, and an Order restraining Mr Rodgers from working elsewhere, both during his notice period and during the subsequent period covered by the post-termination restrictive covenants in his contract of employment. This case raises for decision the interesting and difficult issue of whether, when an employee leaves his employment without giving proper notice stating that he will never return, the employer can keep the contract of employment alive, so as to be able to enforce the employee’s obligation not to work for anyone else, while simultaneously refusing to pay the employee any wages on the basis that the employee is no longer ready and willing to work for the employer.
The facts
There is little dispute about the primary facts of the case, most of which are apparent from the contemporary documents.
Sunrise is an inter-dealer broker, dealing in equity, credit, hybrid and commodity derivatives . Its head office is in London, but it also has offices in New York and in Asia. The majority of Sunrise’s commodities business involves metals contracts, of which most are base metal futures and options, traded on the London Metal Exchange. However, since the end of 2011, Sunrise has sought to build up a business in over-the counter contracts whose underlying commodity is a precious metal. An indication of the type of contracts dealt in by Sunrise may be gathered from the list of contracts to be found in clause 17.1(f) of Mr Rodger’s Contract of Employment, which is set out in paragraph 7 below.
Mr Rodgers joined Sunrise as a derivatives broker in May 2009. He had previously qualified and practised from 2005 to 2008 as a barrister in Northern Ireland, specialising in criminal cases and a small amount of chancery work. At Sunrise, Mr Rodgers began his training on equity derivative products, and thereafter specialised in European single stock derivatives. However, although he showed great promise, his broking activities in that area did not prove very profitable for Sunrise. When Sunrise decided to move into precious metals contracts in 2011, it therefore decided to transfer Mr Rodgers to help to set up its Precious Metals Desk. Mr Rodgers worked on this desk with another broker, Mr Greg Szajman, under the supervision of the Head of Commodities, Mr Gareth Harwood. Mr Rodgers began work on launching the Precious Metals Desk in October 2011,