Franchisee Truck Dealer Crashes in Claims Against Fire Truck Manufacturer for Bad Faith Conduct
Jul 5, 2019 - Franchise, Dealer & Antitrust Decisions in One Sentence by Jeffrey M. Goldstein |Tyler, the Franchisee Dealer, alleged a violation of the Automobile Dealers’ Day in Court Act; breach of contract; and tortious interference with existing contractual relations; all arising out of the Pierce defendants’ allegedly unlawful and fraudulent conduct toward Tyler concerning the marketing, sale, and service of fire and rescue trucks and related goods and equipment in the States of New York and Pennsylvania; the Court, however, dismissed the Franchisee Dealer’s claims because the Automobile Dealers’ Day in Court Act does not cover fire trucks; a contract terminable at will cannot be the basis of a tortious interference claim; and “in the absence of explicit contractual language stating that a party may not unreasonably withhold consent, parties may withhold consent for any reason or no reason, and that no implied obligation to act in good faith exists to limit that choice.”
Tyler Fire Equip., LLC v. Oshkosk Corp., No. 14-CV-6513-CJS, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104539 (W.D.N.Y. June 21, 2019)
Click On Link Below to Read Full Decision
Franchisor Nurse Next Door’s Damages Request for all Future Royalties That “would have been paid” But-For Termination Rebuffed by Federal Court
Jul 4, 2019 - Franchise, Dealer & Antitrust Decisions in One Sentence by Jeffrey M. Goldstein |Plaintiff Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services (USA), Inc.’s Motion for Default Judgment against Defendant Four Gloves, Inc., the franchisee, is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, such that Plaintiff is entitled to damages of unpaid fees of $55,000 and royalties of $81,250, totaling $136,250, based primarily on the Court’s conclusion that Nurse Next Door is entitled to that amount which “to the extent possible, put[s] the injured party in as good a position as that party would have been in had the contract been performed,” specifically royalty payments for the five-year term, but specifically not those other fees (7% and a monthly technology fee), since under the Franchise Agreement the latter fees assumed the use by the franchisee of the Nurse Next Dorr’s Care Services Center, which, due to the termination, had never been made by the franchisee.
Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Servs. (USA) v. Four Gloves, Inc., Civil Action No. 8:18-cv-02101-PX, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106612 (D. Md. June 26, 2019)
CLICK on Link to Read Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Servs. (USA) v. Four Gl Full Decision
GNC Franchisor Prevails in Moving to Set-Aside a Default Entered Against it For Failure to Timely Answer GNC Franchisees’ claims
Jun 28, 2019 - Franchise, Dealer & Antitrust Decisions in One Sentence by Jeffrey M. Goldstein |Federal Court ruled in favor of franchisor GNC in setting aside a default entered against it where the franchisor asserted that the failure to timely respond fell short of constituting culpability because it was attributable to a mere miscommunication between GNC’s litigation counsel and GNC’s in-house legal department, and where GNC further contended that the existence of meritorious defenses to Plaintiffs’ claims and corresponding lack of prejudice to Plaintiffs warranted setting aside the clerk’s entry of default; and where Plaintiffs opposed GNC’s Motion on the basis that GNC’s explanation for its untimely participation in this matter evinced a deliberate, strategic choice rather than a negligent oversight.
Kyllonen v. GNC Franchising, LLC, No. 2:18-cv-01526-GMN-BNW, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99822 (D. Nev. June 13, 2019)
Please click on the link below to read this court decision.
Bone Cement Recipe Owner Manufacturer’s Claims Against Competitor’s Manufacturer for Theft of a Trade Secret is not Time-Barred
Jun 28, 2019 - Franchise, Dealer & Antitrust Decisions in One Sentence by Jeffrey M. Goldstein |In a distribution case, a bone cement recipe owner’s action against a manufacturer of bone cement for the owner’s competitor, alleging theft of a trade secret, misappropriations that were discovered or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should have been discovered more than three years before the suit was filed were time-barred under the Pennsylvania Misappropriations Act (PUTSA), but the owner of the trade secret was permitted to sue for misappropriations that occurred within the three-year period before filing of the Complaint because Pennsylvania applied the rule of separate accrual to trade secret misappropriations of a continuing nature based on the text of the PUTSA and Pennsylvania’s common law rule of separate accrual of the cause of action.
Heraeus Med. GmbH v. Esschem, Inc., No. 18-1368, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 18636 (3d Cir. June 21, 2019)
Please click on the link below to read this court decision.
