On August 26, the Delaware Chancery Court granted partial summary judgement in favor of Alphatec Holdings, Inc. (Alphatec), a medical device company dedicated to revolutionizing the approach to spine surgery, and its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Miles, in an action brought against Mr. Miles and Alphatec by competitor, NuVasive, Inc. based on any claims that Mr. Miles breached the non-competition and employee non-solicitation provisions in his employment agreement with NuVasive.

“As counsel for Mr. Miles, we are very pleased with the court’s decision,” Mintz Member Micha “Mitch” Danzig commented in an article published by Law360. “As a California resident working for a company headquartered in California, Mr. Miles had every right to leave NuVasive and join Alphatec Spine. Mr. Miles also had every right, whether he exercised that right or not, to compete with NuVasive and to even directly solicit its employees or customers. We are glad that the Delaware Chancery Court recognized that right.”

NuVasive filed its lawsuit in October 2017 against Mr. Miles, claiming he invested $500,000 in competitor Alphatec before leaving his role with NuVasive, and then pursued his former company’s employees, customers and distributors. NuVasive accused Mr. Miles of breaching his fiduciary duty to NuVasive and also of breaching his employment contract, which contained a one-year non-compete as well as a non-solicit clause.

The Mintz team representing Mr. Miles and Alphatec is led by Mr. Danzig and includes Associates Eric Eastham and Paul Huston.