Angry employee erases company’s hard work

One of a company’s biggest nightmares: A disgruntled departing employee tampers with his computer to slow down work and wreak general havoc. Here’s a case where a company had that problem and tried to do something about it.

An employee received what he thought was an unfair performance review. Angry with his boss, he resigned from his position.

Before he left, he deleted all of the computer files he’d been working on. The company spent an estimated $40,000-$50,000 on labor trying to recover all the data, and several projects were delayed.

The company told police, and the employee was arrested for breaking an Illinois law against tampering with computer files without the owner’s permission. He was brought to trial, but the charges were dropped after a key witness failed to appear.

Things didn’t end there, though. The employee sued the company for malicious prosecution, claiming the criminal charges had no merit.

The court tossed out his case. For a malicious prosecution claim to hold water, criminal charges have to be brought with no probable cause. In this case, it would be easy to conclude the man broke the law — and probably would’ve been convicted if the trial had gone smoothly.

Cite: Deng v. Sears, Roebuck and Co.