Plaintiff Lumber Company operated a lumber yard in Akron, Ohio. Defendant began
ID: 326098 • Letter: P
Question
Plaintiff Lumber Company operated a lumber yard in Akron, Ohio. Defendant began working as a manager for Plaintiff. He signed an employment contract with Plaintiff. The contract included a provision that prevented Defendant from working in a similar enterprise within a 15- mile radius of Plaintiff’s business for 10 years after leaving his employment. Defendant quit in order to open his own lumber yard in Akron. Three of Plaintiff’s employers went to work at Defendant’s lumber yard.
1. Highlight the pertinent facts;
2. Identify the issue of law and/or fact posed by the case problem;
3. What should be the decision in the case?
4. The reasoning for such decision.
Explanation / Answer
Facts – the defendant has defaulted the terms of contract by starting the similar business as plaintiff near the plaintiff location of business.
Here the non competition clause applies which prevents the employee from working or a competitor in a similar role to the one you’ve held previously for a certain period of time following the termination of defendant’s employment. It is also applicable for stopping the defendant to set up a similar business to the one is already in or has just left.
The decision regarding whether it will be enforceable or not depends on your position in the company. As a manager of the company the defendant would be more likely be able to exploit the information to plaintiff’s advantage when moving somewhere else.
The employer can issue legal proceedings against defendant for breach of contract in order to enforce the relevant restrictive covenants. This will often include an application for an injunction restraining both the defendant, and his new employees, from being in breach of contract.