$200K borrowed from husband's company funded wife's startup that took his clients

A Newfoundland court has ordered a pest control company owned by an employee's wife to produce confidential business records after the company acquired major clients and hired eight workers from the husband's former employer shortly after his resignation. Justice Garrett A. Handrigan of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled on Feb. 3, 2026, that Viking Pest Management Inc. must turn over client lists, contracts, and financial statements despite claims the wife operated independently of her husband, Kenneth Pretty, Rentokil Canada Corporation's former Newfoundland branch manager.

The case involves a timeline that raised questions about whether restrictive covenants could be circumvented through family business structures.

The arrangement that wasn't

Kenneth Pretty worked for Rentokil from October 2022 to June 2023 after the company merged with his previous employer, Terminix. During his eight-month tenure, Pretty sought Rentokil's permission to operate his own pest control company, North Lab Pest Control Ltd., while serving as branch manager.

According to testimony from Safik Malick, Rentokil's HR director, Pretty's proposal went beyond a simple side business. Malick testified: "Sure, though it would have been the fact that he thought that it would have been okay to get paid by the organization for time that he spent doing North Lab work. He thought it would be okay to use the...

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