Breach of Contract

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 your feedback,

as we are desperate for justice.