A Burnaby woman has been named in a lawsuit alleging corporate intrigue in the Lower Mainland organic oat-milk industry.
Burnaby resident Tagnéa Grant is a director of The Mindful Oat, a North Vancouver company that makes and sells organic oat-milk powder, according to a notice of civil claim recently filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
Grant, her company and two others are being sued by Vancouver-based withinUs Natural Health, which also makes and sells an organic oat-milk powder.
WithinUs claims Grant, fellow Mindful Oat director Emily Nakajima, and Julia Shibazaki once worked at withinUs and misappropriated “insider knowledge and confidential information” from the company to launch their own business and product.
WithinUs started working on a powdered organic oat-milk creamer between 2019 and 2020, and all three women were involved, according to the notice of civil claim.
“While employed at withinUs, each of the personal defendants received and/or had access to withinUs’ sensitive, confidential and proprietary information,” states the claim.
The claim says the three women signed employment contracts and non-disclosure agreements barring them from sharing that information, setting up a rival business or poaching employees during their employment at withinUs – and for 12 months after.
While they were still “actively employed” at the company in February 2021, however, withinUs alleges Grant and Nakajima incorporated The Mindful Oat.
“The defendants researched, developed, and arranged for the manufacturing of The Mindful Oat creamer product while all of the personal defendants were still employed at withinUs, using withinUs’ supplier information, ingredients lists, and other information about the withinUs oat creamer product,” states the claim.
All three women resigned from withinUs in a five-month period in 2021, according to the claim.
The suit alleges Nakajima arranged for copies of withinUs sales information to be emailed to her personal email before she left.
The Mindful Oat began selling its product on Aug. 31, 2021, two days before withinUs launched its product on Sept. 2, 2021, according to the claim.
When withinUs did launch its oat creamer, The Mindful Oat offered a special promotion on its product, the claim said.
All the while, withinUs claims Grant and Shibazaki were still employed at withinUs.
WithinUs wasn’t aware of the women’s activities, according to the claim.
“In fact, withinUs provided the personal defendants with ‘farewell bonuses’ as a gesture of good faith and appreciation,” the claim states.
WithinUs didn’t discover the existence of The Mindful Oat until about October 2022.
The company is now suing The Mindful Oat and the three women for copyright infringement, breach of contract, breach of common law employment obligations, breach of confidence and unjust enrichment.
It is asking for a declaration saying The Mindful Oat has been “unjustly enriched” and for an injunction preventing the company from using the materials allegedly misappropriated from withinUs.
WithinUs is also suing for damages, including aggravated and punitive damages.
The company says aggravated and punitive damages are warranted because of the defendants’ “deliberate, wilful and knowing conduct.”
The allegations in the notice of civil claim have not been proven in court.
None of the defendants named in the lawsuit have yet filed a response to the claims.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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