A court has dismissed a major food manufacturer's interlocutory claim that a former national sales manager threatened to breach his post-employment restraints in NSW when he took up a role in a competitor's NZ operations rather than starting immediately in its Sydney office.

Justice Michael Pembroke ordered the manager's former employer, Allied Mills Pty Limited, to pay his legal costs after ruling that the "likelihood of genuine harm to [it] is remote and tangential".

"The real foundation for [Allied Mills'] concerns was anxiety about the loss of a valuable employee and a misplaced suspicion about his motives. But the [manager] stated explicitly, and I accept, that he did not, and does not, intend to contravene his contractual obligations," he said.

Allied Mills sought injunctive relief to prevent its former manager from accepting a role with rival multinational company George Weston Foods as its general manager of grain procurement, based in North Ryde, in breach of his post-employment restraints, which prevented his from working for a competitor for six-months in NSW.

The manager sought release from the restraints, assuring Allied Mills he had "no intention" of soliciting the company's customers or employees, or breaching its intellectual property rights.

George Weston Foods also included in his new employment contract a requirement that he honour his post-employment restraints (clause 19).

But Allied Mills refused to release him and took legal action.

Meanwhile, George Weston Foods in June offered the manager a position based in Auckland as grain procurement manager for its New Zealand milling division, with responsibilities for procurement strategy, planning and raw materials, which differed from his former sales role with Allied Mills.

Justice Pembroke rejected Allied Mills' contention that "the [manager's] role causes 'serious concerns'" that he wouldn't honour his contractual obligations, finding the likelihood of genuine harm to its business was "remote and tangential".

"I have rarely seen an employee so concerned to ensure that he does the right thing by his former employer. As far as his legal obligations to [Allied Mills] are concerned, the [former manager] has a sound moral compass. Few persons in his position, or that of GWF, would have gone so far as to include Clause 19 in the new employment contract. Nor would they have been as frank or as open as he was in informing his employer of his intentions," he said.

Justice Pembroke found that the former manager's new role and responsibilities wouldn't amount to an "actual or threatened" breach of his restraints, because the business of Weston's Milling New Zealand division was not in competition with Allied Mills' business activities in NSW.

Dismissing the claim, he criticised Allied Mills for proceeding with a case where its claim was "so broad and general, that no useful purpose would be served, on the facts of this case, in making those declarations or granting those injunctions".

Allied Mills Pty Limited v Miners [2013] NSWSC 1117 (13 August 2013)