legalityquery
New Member
Legal Query
Jurisdiction : United States of America / Florida
Hello all.
Two years ago, I purchased a Vacation Cleaning Business in Florida (
Hereby noted in this article as "VCB").
We signed a non-compete clause during purchase from the owner ( Herein
referred to as "R" ), preventing "R" from setting up any business of
the same type within 50miles of the VCB, as well as forbidding "R" from
working with any companies who had contracts with the VCB, or from
helping anyone else to do the same.
At one point, we dropped a contract (hereby known as MC) due to
increasingly poor support from the client. They had talked about hiring
on some additional couples to cover extra work whilst we were employed,
which would have halved the work we received from the client. Now we
have seen "R" working in some of the houses under the management of MC.
We found "R's" website advertising her own business on the internet (
Noted herein as "BoC"). We found "R"'s car with adverts for the
business parked near where we had a contracting deal ( in a vacation
complex ).
We also found "R" registering "BoC" in multiple counties around us
under different addresses. One set of contact details from her site
actually appears to be the address of the business contract we dropped
(MC). We have reason to believe that "R" is working with the owners of
MC in her new business as their names are registered alongside "R" 's
on Sunbiz.org
We sent a Cease and Desist Letter to all of the addresses we found for
the licenses ( about 4) and informed "R" of the evidence and to please
stop her activity.
"R" ( responding from the address also registered to MC) responded by
stating that her out-of-county licenses meant that she was not breaking
any laws. She also said that due to the way we purchased the VCB (lump
sum + monthly payments with interest ) that until we paid in full, she
was still the total owner of the business we bought (despite having had
nothing to do with it's running since the 1st day of purchase ).
Since then one of our close friends that we do work for and is aware of
the situation ( Referred to as "FPM" ) has seen "R" working in houses
owned by another one of our former contracting partners, well within
our area, whilst "FPM" went around to check the properties she manages,
and has informed us as well as provided photographic evidence for us.
She (the owner of "BoC") has clearly defied the Non - Compete clause,
but If I sue her for damages or press other actions, there are still a
few gray areas :
- Do we have a good case ??
- What will be the most likely outcome? I have no substantial extra
cash for frivolous lawsuits, and want to be assured that the problem
will cease and maximum possible intervention / compensation is acheived.
- What damages can we expect to recover from it ?? It would help if she
was , at minimum, barred from doing it again, or even if I could get
the rest of the payments struck out, since $1k a month is a substantial
sum.
Since the contract is broken, are any of these actions possible ?
It is unlikely, but would any punitive damage be approved or money
awarded due to loss of business to her ( if any can be proved ) ??
- How long will it take ?? My business is by definition constantly
moving, and I prefer to be close by to deal with last minute problems.
Summer is approaching, and may be too busy to handle weeks of court on
top of an excesive workload.
- Is there any extra hurdle I am forgetting ? Any process I can do to
help build my case further and ensure justice????
Thank you for your time with this matter. I appreciate any and all help you may be able to provide in this time of uncertainty.
Jurisdiction : United States of America / Florida
Hello all.
Two years ago, I purchased a Vacation Cleaning Business in Florida (
Hereby noted in this article as "VCB").
We signed a non-compete clause during purchase from the owner ( Herein
referred to as "R" ), preventing "R" from setting up any business of
the same type within 50miles of the VCB, as well as forbidding "R" from
working with any companies who had contracts with the VCB, or from
helping anyone else to do the same.
At one point, we dropped a contract (hereby known as MC) due to
increasingly poor support from the client. They had talked about hiring
on some additional couples to cover extra work whilst we were employed,
which would have halved the work we received from the client. Now we
have seen "R" working in some of the houses under the management of MC.
We found "R's" website advertising her own business on the internet (
Noted herein as "BoC"). We found "R"'s car with adverts for the
business parked near where we had a contracting deal ( in a vacation
complex ).
We also found "R" registering "BoC" in multiple counties around us
under different addresses. One set of contact details from her site
actually appears to be the address of the business contract we dropped
(MC). We have reason to believe that "R" is working with the owners of
MC in her new business as their names are registered alongside "R" 's
on Sunbiz.org
We sent a Cease and Desist Letter to all of the addresses we found for
the licenses ( about 4) and informed "R" of the evidence and to please
stop her activity.
"R" ( responding from the address also registered to MC) responded by
stating that her out-of-county licenses meant that she was not breaking
any laws. She also said that due to the way we purchased the VCB (lump
sum + monthly payments with interest ) that until we paid in full, she
was still the total owner of the business we bought (despite having had
nothing to do with it's running since the 1st day of purchase ).
Since then one of our close friends that we do work for and is aware of
the situation ( Referred to as "FPM" ) has seen "R" working in houses
owned by another one of our former contracting partners, well within
our area, whilst "FPM" went around to check the properties she manages,
and has informed us as well as provided photographic evidence for us.
She (the owner of "BoC") has clearly defied the Non - Compete clause,
but If I sue her for damages or press other actions, there are still a
few gray areas :
- Do we have a good case ??
- What will be the most likely outcome? I have no substantial extra
cash for frivolous lawsuits, and want to be assured that the problem
will cease and maximum possible intervention / compensation is acheived.
- What damages can we expect to recover from it ?? It would help if she
was , at minimum, barred from doing it again, or even if I could get
the rest of the payments struck out, since $1k a month is a substantial
sum.
Since the contract is broken, are any of these actions possible ?
It is unlikely, but would any punitive damage be approved or money
awarded due to loss of business to her ( if any can be proved ) ??
- How long will it take ?? My business is by definition constantly
moving, and I prefer to be close by to deal with last minute problems.
Summer is approaching, and may be too busy to handle weeks of court on
top of an excesive workload.
- Is there any extra hurdle I am forgetting ? Any process I can do to
help build my case further and ensure justice????
Thank you for your time with this matter. I appreciate any and all help you may be able to provide in this time of uncertainty.
