2 Who Were Wrongfully Fired Awarded $653,000 : Court: Newport Beach security firm claimed they were terminated for stealing trade secrets, but judge says it was to avoid paying them.

An Orange County Superior Court judge Thursday awarded $653,000 to two former employees of a Newport Beach company that accused the pair of stealing trade secrets to start a rival security firm.

After a two-week, non-jury trial, Judge Tully H. Seymour ruled that the men had not taken the secrets, and had in fact been wrongfully terminated by Advanced Microsystems Design Inc. to avoid paying money and stock owed them.

Advanced Microsystems charged in its complaint that in 1991 when Frank G. Gasztonyi and Hing W. Hung had their contracts terminated for cause after four years of employment, they set up a new, competing company in Signal Hill called Mercury Security Corp.

But in their cross complaint, Gasztonyi and Hung alleged that they had fulfilled their contracts with Advanced Microsystems--then located in Garden Grove--by helping the company develop commercial security systems, including access control products such as key card readers and software.

When they pressed for promised stock and royalties with company officials, they said in court documents, they were fired. During the trial, Advanced Microsystems’ value in 1991 was put at about $2.5 million.

Gasztonyi and Hung maintained that they did not use any of Advanced Microsystems’ trade secrets in setting up their firm, and countersued the company for $1.8 million in wages, stock and past and future royalties.

Judge Seymour first found that the men had not used their former employer’s trade secrets, and in a subsequent trial awarded Gasztonyi and Hung $653,000, plus legal costs, from the company and its officers.

Officials and attorneys for Advanced Microsystems could not be reached for comment Thursday.

“We were very pleased that the legal cloud was lifted,” Gasztonyi said, “and very relieved that the pressure is finally off and we can move on to conducting business. . . . This is a fairly small industry, so everybody knows everybody.”