Fired Market Basket executives banned from stores, company property by judge
Two former Market Basket executives who were fired last month are now banned from all stores and company property by a court order.
A Middlesex County Superior Court judge issued an injunction against Tom Gordon and Joseph Schmidt Thursday morning, WCVB-TV reported .
The company filed a complaint against the two men on Monday after they visited 25 stores in three states, as well as the corporate headquarters in Tewksbury, between Aug. 4 and 9, according to court documents.
Gordon and Schmidt were suspended in May, along with CEO Arthur T. Demoulas , when the Market Basket board claimed Demoulas had been considering or preparing to lead an employee work stoppage, and were asked to stay away from company property. The CEO responded by quickly denying the board's claims , calling it a facade for a "hostile takeover" of the grocery store chain. Schmidt and Gordon also told news outlets at the time that they expected to soon lose their jobs .
In July, during the suspension, the two men visited Market Basket stores on two occasions, they admitted in court documents, in order to give well-wishes to retiring employees. Attorneys for Gordon and Schmidt wrote in a response to the company's complaint against them that they did not believe these visits went against the request to stay away from stores, as they were purely personal.
When they were fired on July 22, their termination letters did not contain any instructions to stay away from stores, their attorneys wrote, so they believed they were free to visit "their decades-long colleagues" as "private citizens."
During their visits to stores last week, they were always welcomed by a store manager, assistant manager or both, and were never instructed to leave or to not come back, according to court documents.
Company lawyers, however, wrote in their request for a restraining order against the two former executives that they had been "instructed multiple times that they were not to enter any Market Basket property."
In addition, Schmidt was caught on video entering the corporate offices through a side door on Thursday, Aug. 7, according to court documents. He has also been asked to hand over any keys to company property that he still has in his possession.
Gordon and Schmidt's attorneys claimed in their response to the complaint that the company was wrongly accusing them of attempting to "instill fear" among employees.
"At least one current employee was so 'fearful' of Tom Gordon that she hugged him during his recent visit to see her," they wrote. "Another employee told Joe Schmidt that she would say a prayer for him."
Demoulas has previously said that his and other executives' suspensions are an attempt at a "hostile takeover" of the company, and Gordon and Schmidt have claimed that the takeover is being orchestrated by the CEO's three sisters , MassLive previously reported.
The two men told WCVB that they would respect the court ruling.
Mediation between Demoulas and the Market Basket board is scheduled for Sept. 3.
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