1. For 20 years, Art\'s Flower Shop relied almost exclusively on advertising in
ID: 410206 • Letter: 1
Question
1. For 20 years, Art's Flower Shop relied almost exclusively on advertising in the yellow pages to bring business to its shop in a small West Virginia town. year, the yellow pages printer accidentally did not print Art's ad suffered an enormous drop in business. Art's sued for negligence and won a judgment of $50,000 from the jury, but the printing company appealed, claiming that under an exculpatory clause in the contract, the company could not be lable to Art's for more than the cost of the ad, about $910. Art's claimed that the exculpatory clause was unconscionable. Please rule. One and Arts 2. Guyan Machinery, a West Virginia manufacturing corporation, hired Albert Voorhees as a salesman and required him to sign a contract stating that if he left Guyan, he would not work for a competing corporation anywhere within 250 miles of West a for a two-year period. Later, Voorhees left Guyan and began working at Polydeck Corp., another West Virginia manufacturer. The only product Polydeck made was urethane screens, which comprised half of 1 percent of Guyan's business. Is Guyan entitled to enforce its non-compete clause?Explanation / Answer
1.
There is a case of negligence on the part of Yellow pages and due to non-printing of the ad, Art’s flower shop suffered losses. Here, the damage caused to the flower shop is not about the cost of the printing of the ad, rather the loss of business due to the non-printing of the ad in Yellow pages. It is the case of negligence in service delivery and does not give exculpatory clause, a way to go away from the responsibility by the Yellow pages. So, compensations should be awarded to the Art’s flower shop.
2.
There is law related to non-competing agreement in the state of Virginia, but it has to pass through a test of the three following conditions.
A. not more than the necessary to protect the business interests of the employer
B. It should not be harsh upon the employees in earning him a livelihood
C. In accordance with the public policy
In the given case, the new firm has the business that is only .5% of the business of Guyan Machinery and produce only one product that is Polydeck. Since the market share of the new firm is very small in comparison to the Guyan Machinery, then it is non-competing with the firm of Guyan Machinery. So, the working of Voorhees in the new firm, does not harm the business interest of the past employer Guyan Machinery. Further, stopping Voorhees from working in the new firm, will negatively affect the ability to earn the livelihood. Also, the sound public policy promotes fair competition in the market. On these points, the non-competing agreement does not apply to Voorhees and he can work in the new firm.
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