Romero victory as rival broker pays £110,000 costs and damages

Eastwood & Partners has agreed to pay £110,000 in damages and legal costs to Romero Insurance Brokers after losing a High Court dispute.

Romero sued former Halifax corporate manager Andrew Templeton, and his new employer Eastwood, for breaching the restrictive covenants that prohibited him from soliciting business from former clients for 12 months after leaving his job.

Templeton and Eastwood argued that Templeton had been constructively dismissed by Romero, and that the covenants were therefore unenforceable.

However, Judge Sir Raymond Jack ruled today that Templeton had not been constructively dismissed. He also confirmed that the restrictive covenants were enforceable.

“I have concluded that it was reasonable for Romero to seek to protect its client connection with a 12-month restriction against solicitation by Mr Templeton in the way Romero did,” the judge said.

Romero managing director Simon Mabb said: “As you can imagine, we are pleased with the outcome, we are a great believer in doing things right, which must have come out loud and clear to the judge.

“This has been an expensive lesson for Mr Templeton and Eastwood & Partners, but they left us with no alternative but to bring the claim against them.”

The £110,000 damages agreed between the parties cover Romero’s legal costs and the loss of business it suffered when clients followed Templeton to Eastwood. Those clients are free to decide whether to keep their business with Eastwood.

Eatons Solicitors head of corporate and employment law Maureen Singleton, who represented Romero, said:  “Ex-employees should not think that they can simply claim breach of contract and then claim constructive dismissal as a means of suggesting that restrictive covenants in their contracts of employment are invalid.”