Larry E. Clark v. Berkeley L. Bunker

BROWNING, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a judgment in a diversity action awarding damages against appellants for the misappropriation of appellee’s trade secret, consisting of a detailed plan for the creation, promotion, financing, and sale of contracts for “prepaid” or “pre-need” funeral services.

The trial court 1 rested liability upon the legal conclusion that “[sjince Defendant, Berkeley L. Bunker, appropriated and put to use Plaintiff’s plan in breach of the confidential relationship existing between the parties, Plaintiff is entitled to an accounting of profits and to damages.”…