Court has final say in food war

Taza Midway Foods, which sells frozen rotis, samoosas, spring rolls and savouries, brought an application in the Durban High Court against its former employee Dewlall Rajah and business The Roti Ous.

Taza Midway Foods, which sells frozen rotis, samoosas, spring rolls and savouries, brought an application in the Durban High Court against its former employee Dewlall Rajah and business The Roti Ous.

Published Jan 28, 2015

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A popular Durban food outlet says a former employee was a spy who came to work for the business to learn trade secrets to set up a rival business.

Taza Midway Foods, which sells frozen rotis, samoosas, spring rolls and savouries, brought an application in the Durban High Court against its former employee Dewlall Rajah and business The Roti Ous.

On Tuesday Judge David Ntshangase discharged an interim order that had been obtained against The Roti Ous because it emerged that they had fired Rajah.

The court granted a final order to interdict Rajah from running businesses in competition with Taza within 20km of its outlets in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

In their court application, Taza manager Abdullah Hassim said the business was successful, had five outlets in Durban and one in Pietermaritzburg, and had registered the trademark “Taza”.

He said Rajah was hired by the business last August and he signed a confidentiality and restraint of trade contract.

The restraint of trade agreement was for two years.

Hassim said that in Rajah’s course of work he had direct access to customers, suppliers, trade secrets and other confidential information.

Just three months after his appointment, on November 17, Rajah called in sick and said his driver’s licence had been “impounded” by the police.

He said he could only report for work in January.

Hassim said he later discovered that Rajah had leased premises in Verulam and intended to conduct a rival business.

“The first respondent (Rajah) entered employment with the applicant (Taza) with the sole motive of becoming privy to sensitive and confidential information.The applicant (Taza) was also in the process of securing premises to open an outlet in Verulam, which was known to the first respondent.”

He called a meeting on November 29 with Rajah, who handed in a resignation letter, and Hassim gave Rajah a lawyer’s letter informing him that to open a rival business would be “unlawful” and a breach of the restraint agreement.

Hassim said he thought the lawyer’s letter would be the end of the matter, but in December Saleem Khan, the manager of a Taza’s outlet in Phoenix, told him Rajah had called to order goods.

Hassim sent one of his employees to The Roti Ous shop, and he was served by Rajah.

The employee took pictures inside the shop and saw products with Taza labels being repackaged under new labels.

He said he believed there would be damage to the Taza brand and confusion for customers.

“At the very least, the applicant’s products are being used unlawfully, which can and will cause confusion in the minds of customers.”

The Mercury

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