Steve Easterbrook, president and main govt officer of McDonald’s Corp., walks the grounds immediately after a morning session through the Allen & Co. Media and Engineering convention in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Illustrations or photos
McDonald’s former CEO Steve Easterbrook shot back at the quick meals large, saying the firm’s lawsuit accusing him of fraud and seeking to claw back again an estimated $42 million of his compensation was “meritless” and “misleading,” according to a new court filing.
McDonald’s sued Easterbrook very last 7 days, months immediately after its board fired him for owning a romance with an employee. The lawsuit submitted in Delaware point out courtroom alleges that Easterbrook dedicated fraud and lied all through the firm’s probe into a partnership he experienced with an employee. The enterprise reported it uncovered three alleged further relationships with workforce he did not disclose prior to his firing. McDonald’s is seeking to claw back again the payment he gained as part of his separation agreement.
In Friday courtroom filings, Easterbrook requested to dismiss the case versus him, proclaiming that the equity award settlement mandates litigation in DuPage County, Illinois and that there is language in the separation settlement bars the business from reversing it.
Easterbrook also argues that the new information and facts McDonald’s cited in bringing ahead its suit — email messages that ended up allegedly deleted from his cell phone but even now accessible on the company’s server — was offered to the business prior to the separation arrangement getting signed.
“McDonald’s – a subtle entity represented by numerous inside and external specialists when it entered into the Separation Settlement – is aware that it can not credibly allege a breach of deal declare,” Easterbrook’s legal professionals said in the filings. “Alternatively, it improperly seeks to manufacture claims for a breach of fiduciary obligation or fraud.”
The separation agreement integrated a non-disparagement clause, which will make Easterbrook “basically not able to make any general public remark.”
In McDonald’s lawsuit versus Easterbrook, the complaint alleges that Easterbrook authorised “an incredible inventory grant, truly worth hundreds of hundreds of bucks” for one particular of the workforce while they had been included in a sexual romantic relationship. Easterbrook’s response notes that the board reviewed and approved the staff fairness award.
