26 years inside, no non-compete on file, and a printer log that triggered the lawsuit
A 26-year engineer jumped to a rival without a non-compete – and the Sixth Circuit just made it easier for his old employer to fight back.
PCC Airfoils, an Ohio company that makes industrial gas turbine airfoils, is trying to stop a former engineer from working at a direct competitor. On May 19, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit handed the company a procedural win that should matter to any employer thinking about how it handles senior departures.
The engineer at the center of the case is Justin Daugherty. He joined PCC in 1998 and spent 26 years there. In 2020 the company promoted him to director of engineering. A restructure the following year stripped him of the title and the responsibilities that came with it. According to the court, Daugherty was frustrated by the demotion and by the lack of promotional opportunities. When Consolidated Precision Products, one of PCC's competitors, offered him a director of engineering role, he accepted. He had no non-compete agreement with PCC.
After Daugherty resigned, PCC investigated his printing activity. The company identified four documents containing confidential information about its airfoils that Daugherty had potentially queued for printing in his last two days on the job. Forensic analysts could not confirm whether the documents were actually printed. PCC did not find them in the materials Daugherty left behind. The...
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