Central Florida construction company settles lawsuit over employee’s theft

A construction company and an ex-employee accused of stealing personal information on his way out the door have settled their litigation, court records show.

Williams Company Management Group initially sued Paul Comazzi in federal court in July. The case was settled recently, although a Nov. 30 court filing doesn’t disclose the terms of the agreement, and the lawsuit was dismissed in December. Neither side responded to a request for comment for this story.

Williams Company accused its former construction technology manager of a data breach and taking the company’s bank account statements and tax returns as well as 401(k) information with employees’ names, Social Security numbers, birthdates and their compensation.

Williams Company is a construction company that has constructed high-profile buildings in Central Florida in the theme park industry, the commercial sector and for educational uses.

In a court filing, Williams said Comazzi “intentionally accessed Williams Co.’s server and other data information storage systems without authorization.” Comazzi exceeded “the authority that he was granted when he used a colleague’s username and password” to access, download and steal proprietary business information and then share it with others, the company argued.

Williams called the data theft “offensive and outrageous behavior that is intolerable in a civilized community.”

Williams’ attorneys did not respond to a question if the company had gotten the confidential information back.

Comazzi resigned from the company Jan. 28, telling his employer it was for “unforeseen personal reasons,” according to Williams.

But Comazzi told others the real reason he quit was because he wanted to sleep in until noon and play video games all day, according to Williams’ lawsuit.

Comazzi’s “discussion about his resignation with colleagues … is an important fact in this case because Plaintiff had no legitimate reason for accessing Williams Co.’s server and other data … because he knew he was going to resign from his employment with the Company and raided its data on his way out,” Williams said in a court filing.

In September, Comazzi filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and argued the company’s servers weren’t physical locations; “thus, cannot be the basis for a claim of intrusion.”

Comazzi also complained the company was trying to embarrass him by mentioning his desire to play video games and sleep in late in the lawsuit.