Our client paid a fee to a company that was to provide certain services. The contract stated that the fee would be refunded if certain specified goals were not met by certain dates. When those performance goals were not met, our client gave notice as required by the contract and requested the promised refund several
Our client, a salesman, was sued by his former employer who claimed that he had violated his non-compete agreement by using confidential information to unfairly compete. The damages sought exceeded $500,000. After a temporary injunction was granted against our client and his new employer, we employed a strategy that focused on attacking the enforceability of
This dispute was between business partners over how to divide up monies received from the sale of oil and gas leases. Our client claimed he was owed $1.1M based on his ownership interest in the selling company, but his business partners felt that he had not contributed enough to the project to earn that much
Our client, the former CEO of a defunct Louisiana company, was sued in Texas by a vendor who claimed that our client was personally liable for the company’s falure to pay for products that the vendor had delivered to the company. The vendor sued our client in Texas, even though he was not a resident
EMPLOYERS WIN ANOTHER NON-COMPETITION BATTLE The Texas Supreme Court has issued another opinion favoring the employer where the issue is the enforceability of an agreement that restricts an employee’s ability to compete after employment has terminated. This opinion is the latest in what appears to be a trend toward finding a rationale to support
MINORITY OWNERS’ RIGHTS CONTINUE TO EXPAND Texas courts recognize that majority owners in private companies must deal fairly with their minority owners or face claims for minority shareholder oppression. Texas courts have approved the following as acts of shareholder oppression: malicious oppression of dividends (starving out the little guys), personal use of corporate funds
The Texas Covenant Not to Compete Act requires that the time, geographic area, and scope of activity limitations of a covenant not to compete be reasonable. By reasonable, it is meant that the restriction must not impose a restraint on the former employee that is greater than is necessary to protect the goodwill or other
If you are an employer, you need to be careful what you say about ex-employees and who you say it to. In Downing v. Burns, a recent 14th Court of Appeals decision, Deborah Downing resigned from her job as an assistant to Don Burns. After she resigned Don Burn’s attorney wrote Deborah Downing a letter accusing her
Enforcing Covenants Not To Compete: Employers Are On A Winning Streak The Texas Supreme Court just made it easier for employers to stop former employees from competing against them. In Marsh USA, Inc. v. Cook, the Texas Supreme Court held that stock options given to an employee are sufficient consideration for enforcement of a non-compete
When contemplating hiring a new employee who works for a competitor, a concern is whether that potential employee has signed an employment agreement containing a covenant not to compete, a non-disclosure of trade secrets provision, or a non-solicitation provision. The concern is that after the new employee is hired the former employer will file a
