This food franchise dispute now in litigation in Florida has all of the expected allegations and markings of a prototypical franchisor-franchisee litigation battle in 2017: (1) a believable ulterior motive for termination (the franchisee store’s closure, according to the franchisee, was part of a scheme by the franchisor (B&B’s parent company) to oust the franchisee from the West Palm Beach dining center so the franchisor could do a competing deal with the franchisee’s competitor (Revolutions); (2) traditional ‘fraud and breach of contract’ claims by franchisee; (3) franchisee termination follows its alleged failure on a quality assurance inspection conducted by the franchisor; (4) ‘other hidden off-the-contract’ motivations for getting rid of the franchisee (franchisee was operating a gay bar on the second floor of the location, which had never before been objected to); (5) the franchisor allegedly failed to meet its contractual obligations (although the franchisee was assured 162 hours of classroom and on-the-job training, franchise claims it was provided with “zero training”; similarly, the franchisor’s “operations manual” allegedly wasn’t any help because it ‘was cut-and-pasted from manuals for sushi and Mexican restaurants’); (6) the franchisor, after the franchisee purchased the franchise, modified the entire strategic thrust of the franchise business (the franchisor allegedly moved the franchise company into the movie theater and bowling alley business — and away from a nationwide franchise roll-out, as promised); (7) the franchisor’s undisclosed strategic decision caused the franchisee to fail (according to the franchisee, with the company’s new direction, the franchisee was left […]

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