Swim instructor must stop lessons near former employer

The owners of a swimming lesson company have secured a High Court injunction restraining one of its former employees from giving swimming lessons anywhere within a five-mile radius of the firm’s premises over the coming months.

The injunction was granted in favour of Limerick-based Swim Max Limited against Ricardo Rojas by Mr Justice Conor Dignam on Friday afternoon.

It restrains Mr Rojas, with an address in Limerick city, from giving swimming lessons within the five-mile radius for a period of six months.

It is claimed he left the company in late April.

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The injunction also prevents him from utilising any of the company’s trade secrets and confidential information in relation to training techniques or carrying on in competition with Swim Max for six months.

The company, represented in the proceedings by Jack Nicholas, claims that by giving the lessons Mr Rojas has breached the contract of employment he signed when he commenced working with Swim Max.

Counsel said the contract contained a restrictive clause or covenant that prevents Swim Max’s employees from utilising its methods or coaching swimming within the specified geographical area for six months after they depart the firm.

Mr Rojas was not in court for the hearing.

The judge said that while he was satisfied the defendant had been served with the proceedings and was aware the action had been listed before the court, he was only prepared to put an injunction in place for a short period of three weeks.

Mr Justice Dignam said the defendant may make any submissions if he wishes regarding the order when the matter is next before the court.

In addition, Mr Rojas was granted liberty to apply to the court to seek to remove or alter the order before the case returns.

In a sworn statement to the court, the firm’s founder and owner, Diana Daly, said Mr Rojas left in April but she had subsequently discovered he had been giving swimming lessons at another pool in the Limerick area.

She said that the company does not know exactly how many of its students have left to be trained by Mr Rojas. He was in breach of the restrictive covenant, and Swim Max feared that it would suffer reputational damage if the injunction was not granted, she said.

Mr Rojas, she said, joined the company in 2020 as a swimming instructor and last March informed the company he was leaving to work for Uber as he “wanted to do something different”.

Ms Daly said she was surprised to learn last month that Mr Rojas was teaching some of her firm’s customers at a leisure centre pool in the Limerick area.

She and her husband observed Mr Rojas giving a swimming lesson to children at the centre, she claimed.

She said they approached him, and reminded him of the terms of his contract of employment with Swim Max. She said Mr Rojas replied that he was doing it “for a bit of extra cash”.

She told him he had to stop, but said that he answered with a smile on his face and asked: “What are you going to do? Bring me to court?”

She said she told him she would have to take legal action if she had to and subsequently issued legal proceedings.

She added that there had been difficulties in serving Mr Rojas with the proceedings.

Court documents had been served at the Leisure Centre where he is allegedly giving lessons and at his mother’s residence at Rossadrehid, Bansha, in Co Tipperary.