Company loses over $400,000 in sales after employee’s departure
A Calgary waste management company that lost 90% of its clients when a key employee departed has failed to secure an injunction against him, despite an Alberta court finding he owed fiduciary duties to his former employer.
Justice C.M. Jones of the Court of King's Bench dismissed Garbage King's application for an interlocutory injunction against Brad Voth and his new employer, VP Disposal, in a decision released Nov. 18, 2025. The ruling highlights the critical importance of proper employment documentation and swift legal action when senior employees depart.
Voth joined Garbage King in January 2022 in what the company's president, Heather Saunders, described as a joint venture arrangement. He would contribute industry knowledge and client contacts while she provided capital. There was no written employment agreement.
A draft contract presented in April 2022 referring to Voth as operations manager was never signed. He was verbally promised 5% of shares after two years.
When Voth left in January 2023, Saunders claimed he "solicited Garbage King's customers, with the result that Garbage King lost 90% of its business." By the time of questioning, Garbage King retained only three of 15 customers and lost roughly $417,240 in sales.
Resignation letter submitted
Garbage King asserted Voth was its managing partner and director with fiduciary obligations. Voth denied this, claiming limited duties including dispatching drivers, taking customer calls and purchasing supplies. He said spending authority was capped at $500 per transaction and major decisions required approval from both Saunders and Dean Leask, who handled finances.
The evidence showed Voth was listed as director in incorporation documents and used titles "managing director" and "managing partner" in emails. When he left, he submitted a resignation letter stating, "It is with regret that I tender my resignation from the Garbage King incorporated board of directors."
Justice Jones found the substance of the relationship mattered more than formal titles. Voth was "the face of Garbage King," dealing directly with clients and wielding significant influence over them, as evidenced by their migration to VP Disposal.
Key employee owed fiduciary duty
Despite finding "a strong prima facie case that Voth was a key employee and owed it a fiduciary duty," Justice Jones denied the injunction on all three required grounds. The court found Garbage King failed to establish:
- it would suffer irreparable harm
- damages were not an adequate remedy
- the balance of convenience favoured granting relief.
On irreparable harm, the court found Garbage King's damages "appear to be entirely quantifiable in money terms, capable of determination by the trial judge," noting both companies were still operating profitably. On balance of convenience, the nearly two-and-a-half-year delay since Voth's departure proved fatal, with the court finding any cooling-off period had expired and confidential information had "no doubt changed."
The court also noted there was no evidence that prohibiting VP Disposal from servicing former clients would result in those customers returning to Garbage King.
Critically, Justice Jones observed, "Where a customer rejects the services of a corporation because it has lost access to the fiduciary's expertise or because the customer has a direct relationship with the fiduciary, there is no breach of fiduciary duty."
The court emphasized that "the proper remedy for a former employee's breach of duty to a former employer is damages," and that injunctions are reserved for cases where "redress after trial would be neither fair nor reasonable," citing a 1995 Alberta Court of Appeal decision. The case continues toward trial on the merits.
