Lenox Corporation and Nambé LLC have issued a press release stating that, “they have amicably entered into a confidential settlement agreement of litigation resolving claims between them.”
The settlement results in the dismissal of Lenox’s lawsuit against William Robedee, its former chief legal officer, and Louis Scala, a former executive at Lenox, which had been pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Also as a result of the settlement agreement, Nambé, for which Robedee is currently president and CEO and Scala is chief marketing officer, dismissed its separate lawsuit against Lenox, which also had been pending in the New Jersey district court.
Lenox’s suit claimed Robedee improperly approached Nambé in 2014 about Robedee and Scala joining the company while Robedee was representing Lenox in negotiations to acquire Nambé that never materialized in a deal. Lenox claimed the actions of Robedee and Scala constituted “a breach of their fiduciary duties, a breach of their duty of loyalty to Lenox, civil conspiracy, unfair competition and breach of contract on the part of Scala,” according to court documents.
Nambé subsequently sued Lenox, claiming Lenox broke a confidentiality agreement when it disclosed in its suit against Nambé that negotiations were pending for a possible acquisition of Nambé by Lenox, according to court documents. Nambé claimed Lenox’s inclusion of the pending acquisition information in its complaint forced Nambé to expend significant time and effort repairing its relationships with its customers and employees.
“Both Lou and I are happy that this matter has come to an amicable resolution and we are looking forward to an exciting year of continued growth at Nambé,” Robedee told HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®.
Lenox Corporation had no further comment beyond the press release.