In an unprecedented move, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an arrest warrant for a former W.L. Gore & Associates research scientist who is alleged to have violated a court order banning him from working with competing companies. Legal analysts and attorneys familiar with the case said they cannot cite another instance when the equity court issued an arrest warrant since its formation in 1792.
Under Title 10, Section 370 of the Delaware Code, the Chancery Court “may enforce obedience to its judgments by imprisonment of the body or the sequestration of lands.” However, Lawrence A. Hamermesh, a corporate law professor at Widener University School of Law, said he cannot recall the Chancery Court ever flexing such power.
