Bad dog walker! Bad!
A Manhattan judge has curbed a dog walker who was allegedly poaching customers from a TriBeCa kennel, ordering him not to walk pooches within a 10-mile radius of lower Manhattan.
State Supreme Court Justice Debra James signed off on the no-dogs-allowed temporary restraining order after finding that Brian Mestre, of Queens, had signed a non-compete agreement while working for the Paw Stop on Murray Street.
Despite the agreement, Mestre, 27, quietly set up his own company and was siphoning customers from the upscale kennel while working as its employee, court papers charge.
“He was nice, young kid who worked hard and had an excellent demeanor, but sometimes nice people f- – – you over,” said Paw Stop owner Dan Rubenstein, 37.
He estimated that Mestre’s alleged two-timing cost his business at least five customers and $130,000.
Mestre’s lawyer, Lawrence Goodman, however blasted the judge’s ruling and said his client was considering an appeal.
“The court has prevented my client from earning a livelihood based on its reasoning that walking a dog is somehow unique or extraordinary,” Goodman said.
Mestre had been hired in January 2007 “as a front-desk receptionist, kennel manager, driver and assistant dog trainer,” court papers say.
Rubenstein said that by July, Mestre had earned a raise and a promotion.
It was then, the Paw Stop suit says, that he signed the non-compete agreement and gained access to “confidential information, specifically the client database, which he used to create his own independent dog-service company.”
Rubenstein said he found out that Mestre had been throwing himself a few bones this past May, when he was out for a jog and saw Mestre walking a former client’s dog by the West Side Highway.
When Rubenstein asked him about it the next day, Mestre admitted he had started his own company, and his customers were Paw Stop customers, his suit says.
Mestre was fired – “Don’t come into my business and be a corporate raider,” Rubenstein said – but allegedly kept busy with Paw Stop customers after he was let go.
Rubenstein’s suit seeks unspecified money damages, as well as enforcement of the non-compete clause, which bars Mestre from operating dog-related services within a 10-mile radius of the Paw Stop.