By 10 o’clock on the night of May 14, Elizabeth Kudla, in-house lawyer and chief of staff for the local luxury vacation company Cuvee, had decided to fire Pollyanna Forster.
Eight hours before, Forster had texted her husband a Cuvee client list and warned that her Cuvee phone “is probably tapped,” according to court documents. Five hours before, Microsoft had alerted Cuvee that Forster “deleted a large number of files” from its server.
At 8:42 p.m., Forster emailed herself hundreds of pages of proprietary information about Cuvee, according to the company. And she stopped answering Kudla’s phone calls.
So, Cuvee fired Forster and sent her cease-and-desist letters. Then, on May 22, it sued her.
Cuvee, which is headquartered in Greenwood Village and manages dozens of Colorado properties, pairs homeowners with well-off travelers and plans excursions for those guests. Its lawsuit against Forster uses the word “bespoke” to describe itself three times.
Forster, 55, was hired last summer to be the company’s Vail Valley director of operations. Cuvee hoped she would one day lead all mountain destinations for the company worldwide.
“However, by the end of 2024, it had become clear Forster’s performance, including specifically her interpersonal skills, left much to be desired,” according to Cuvee’s lawsuit.
Vail Valley properties were underperforming, Forster was skipping meetings and refusing to help guests in Aspen and Telluride, and she had accused a co-worker of impropriety without reason, Cuvee says. So, by May 14, she had reason to believe that she would be fired.
“As Forster’s employment was obviously coming to an end, due to her deficient performance, lack of professionalism, and interpersonal challenges, Forster decided to go shopping through Cuvee’s private server,” according to a motion the company filed May 27.
When Cuvee sent a second cease-and-desist letter on May 16, two days after firing her, Forster is said to have responded by accusing the company of “gaslighting,” then demanded large payments from Cuvee and threatened to publish a “700-page WhatsApp stream filled with job harassment, defamation and … recorded conversations with ownership.”
Cuvee says Forster admitted emailing files to herself but claimed to have deleted them. Unconvinced, the company sued her in Arapahoe County District Court and asked a judge there to issue an injunction barring her from using any stolen trade secrets. Judge Don Toussaint has not yet scheduled a hearing on that request for a temporary restraining order.
Forster, who lives in Eagle, did not answer BusinessDen’s requests for an interview.
Cuvee, meanwhile, says it continues to investigate its former employee’s actions. Cuvee’s attorneys, Beth Lennon and Carissa Davis with the Venable firm in Denver, did not respond to requests for further details about that alleged wrongdoing.
By 10 o’clock on the night of May 14, Elizabeth Kudla, in-house lawyer and chief of staff for the local luxury vacation company Cuvee, had decided to fire Pollyanna Forster.
Eight hours before, Forster had texted her husband a Cuvee client list and warned that her Cuvee phone “is probably tapped,” according to court documents. Five hours before, Microsoft had alerted Cuvee that Forster “deleted a large number of files” from its server.
At 8:42 p.m., Forster emailed herself hundreds of pages of proprietary information about Cuvee, according to the company. And she stopped answering Kudla’s phone calls.
So, Cuvee fired Forster and sent her cease-and-desist letters. Then, on May 22, it sued her.
Cuvee, which is headquartered in Greenwood Village and manages dozens of Colorado properties, pairs homeowners with well-off travelers and plans excursions for those guests. Its lawsuit against Forster uses the word “bespoke” to describe itself three times.
Forster, 55, was hired last summer to be the company’s Vail Valley director of operations. Cuvee hoped she would one day lead all mountain destinations for the company worldwide.
“However, by the end of 2024, it had become clear Forster’s performance, including specifically her interpersonal skills, left much to be desired,” according to Cuvee’s lawsuit.
Vail Valley properties were underperforming, Forster was skipping meetings and refusing to help guests in Aspen and Telluride, and she had accused a co-worker of impropriety without reason, Cuvee says. So, by May 14, she had reason to believe that she would be fired.
“As Forster’s employment was obviously coming to an end, due to her deficient performance, lack of professionalism, and interpersonal challenges, Forster decided to go shopping through Cuvee’s private server,” according to a motion the company filed May 27.
When Cuvee sent a second cease-and-desist letter on May 16, two days after firing her, Forster is said to have responded by accusing the company of “gaslighting,” then demanded large payments from Cuvee and threatened to publish a “700-page WhatsApp stream filled with job harassment, defamation and … recorded conversations with ownership.”
Cuvee says Forster admitted emailing files to herself but claimed to have deleted them. Unconvinced, the company sued her in Arapahoe County District Court and asked a judge there to issue an injunction barring her from using any stolen trade secrets. Judge Don Toussaint has not yet scheduled a hearing on that request for a temporary restraining order.
Forster, who lives in Eagle, did not answer BusinessDen’s requests for an interview.
Cuvee, meanwhile, says it continues to investigate its former employee’s actions. Cuvee’s attorneys, Beth Lennon and Carissa Davis with the Venable firm in Denver, did not respond to requests for further details about that alleged wrongdoing.