Show posts for: Breach of Contract

  • A recent decision from a federal court in Richmond should serve as a reminder to employers and employees that, even though they may think that they put a dispute behind them with a settlement agreement, in fact, the dispute can be resurrected like a zombie on Halloween.  At stake in the Richmond case is a $5,000 settlement payment and fairly serious allegations about sexual harassment by a supervisor at a car washing business.  However, the court’s ruling on basic principles of rescission of contract , could have relevance for the Vikram Pandits and Citigroups of the world.

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  • The world’s largest wind turbine company, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, recently terminated its former CFO’s severance agreement after it discovered that he entered into unauthorized deals in India.  When Vestas announced its termination of its Henrik Noerremark’s severance agreement, it said that his unauthorized contracts cost the company about 18 million euros and that it is seeking to void the deals.  The company said it was also considering whether to bring claims against Noerremark.

    What kinds of claims might Vestas pursue? 

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  • Maybe.  A California case is testing the idea that you can get in trouble at work – or even fired – for having an affair even if you’re not having an affair.  Even if, in fact, you’re not actually doing anything that would make someone think you were having an affair.  Can you recover damages if you’re fired under these circumstances?  We’ll have to see, as explained below. 

    Let’s start at the beginning.  It’s generally considered good career advice to keep your love life and your work life separate.   For their part, companies often encourage their employees to do so.  Others ask coworkers in relationships to sign “love contracts,” which may or may not mitigate the ultimate impact if the relationship goes awry. 

    But sometimes, an executive can get into trouble even if her boss just suspects she’s having an affair with another boss.  How can this come about, you ask?  The answer is in a complaint filed earlier this month in California, entitled Alexander v. The Original Footwear Company. 

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  • The Inbox

    | Jason M. Knott

    News in suits by suits for you to ponder once you’ve tired of reading about replacement refs and bacon:

    • Every law librarian I know is a kind, mild-mannered person who would never dream of threatening to bash you with a crowbar.  But Donald Raymond, formerly of Southern Illinois University, was accused of making such a threat, and was fired shortly after the allegation.  Karen Sloan at the National Law Journal writes that Raymond sued his employer after his termination, and that his case has now survived a motion to dismiss. 
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  • On Sept. 17, 2012, a U.S. District Court denied Merrill Lynch’s petition to vacate an arbitration panel’s award of $10.2 million to two of its former advisors, Tamara Smolchek and Meri Ramazio.  The award – split almost evenly between $5.2 million in compensatory damages for deferred compensation and $5 million in punitive damages – helps to illustrate the growing (and changing) role that arbitration plays in disputes between high-level executives and their employers.

    For decades it has been conventional wisdom that employee arbitration clauses favor the employer by taking potentially sensitive cases away from a jury (because “everyone knows” that juries are “more sympathetic to employees”).  (Or, as a more employer-friendly article puts it, arbitration can reduce the likelihood of an “irrational award” because arbitrators “tend to be more conservative than juries.”)

    Additionally, arbitration clauses can favor the employer where the employee is required to share in some (or all) of the costs of the arbitration by discouraging plaintiffs who would otherwise have been able to secure plaintiffs’ counsel on a contingent fee basis for a trial by jury.  (Note that courts continue to grapple with this issue, and many courts have determined that if an arbitration clause would unduly burden a plaintiff from exercising his or her legal rights, that arbitration clause is invalid and the plaintiff is free to litigate in court instead.  See, e.g., Ball v. SFX Broadcasting, Inc., 165 F. Supp. 2d 320, 238-40 (N.D.N.Y. 2001) (discussing cases).

    Is this still the case?  Read on.

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  • Time Waits for No One...and No Lawsuit

    | Zuckerman Spaeder Team

    Timing is everything, they say.  That’s especially true when it comes to filing a lawsuit: if your timing is off and you file after the statute of limitations – the amount of time the law allows you to bring your suit – has expired, you can be out of luck.  It becomes more complicated because each state has its own set of these time limits.  Some states give you plenty of time to sue.  Others, not so much. 

    In the employment context, the former general counsel of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia learned that lesson this week the hard way.  Gregory Barton sued his former employer, alleging he was denied the right amount of severance pay after he was asked to leave the company.  Barton thought New York’s window of six years to bring his suit applied.  Wrong, held the New York judge as she dismissed his case: Delaware’s one year limit applied.

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  • From The “If You Can’t Say Something Nice” Department

    | Zuckerman Spaeder Team

    It’s very likely that your grandmother, an aunt or uncle, or some other wise and guiding figure in your life taught you the maxim we started in our headline: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. 

    That’s a saying that captures a theme that comes out of many of our posts here on Suits-by-Suits.  It’s not just a decent piece of advice for life, but in business relationships as well. 

    Of course, there are times when you can’t follow it, and have to say something.  This is especially true when key employees leave a company, and the company is compelled to explain the departures.  But as genetic-analysis company Sequenom learned last Thursday in a ruling from a California appellate court, if you’re going to say something that’s not nice about a former employee, then follow another rule that we lawyers are especially fond of: get your agreement with the former employee in writing before you say anything about him.  Or, you can face long and protracted litigation over who did and said what. 

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  • The Inbox

    | Jason M. Knott

    The pre-Labor Day highlights of Suits by Suits:

    • A producer of Martin Scorcese’s next film, The Wolf of Wall Street, filed a lawsuit against the production company for reducing her role.  The New York Post reports that Alexandra Milchan alleges that she was owed $700,000 in fixed payments and the right to produce the film.  The article includes a photo of Leo DiCaprio wearing … you guessed it … a suit.
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  • Many of the cases we talk about here on Suits by Suits are breach of contract cases brought by executives against their former employers.  Sometimes, however, the employer turns the tables, bringing an action against a former executive for breaching its confidences.  When that happens, the executive can find himself owing the company a lot of money, rather than the other way around.

    Such was the fate of a former lawyer for Toyota named Dimitrios Biller, the subject of the Ninth Circuit’s recent opinion in Biller v. Toyota Motor Corp., 668 F.3d 655 (9th Cir. 2012).  

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  • Sexual discrimination claims continue to be big news in the world of suits by suits.  We’ve previously commented at some length regarding the novel issues raised in the sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former Kleiner Perkins partner Ellen Pao.

    Today, we turn to a related and equally unique issue:  a sexual orientation claim brought under the auspices of the Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq.  Although there is no federal statute that protects employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation generally, Brian Anthony Martinez, the former international managing director of television for Bloomberg Media, brought a lawsuit against his former employer in 2011, alleging that he was terminated after Bloomberg discovered that he had undergone therapy for domestic abuse from his male partner, thus (arguably) bringing his claims under the ADA.

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As the regulatory and business environments in which our clients operate grow increasingly complex, we identify and offer perspectives on significant legal developments affecting businesses, organizations, and individuals. Each post aims to address timely issues and trends by evaluating impactful decisions, sharing observations of key enforcement changes, or distilling best practices drawn from experience. InsightZS also features personal interest pieces about the impact of our legal work in our communities and about associate life at Zuckerman Spaeder.

Information provided on InsightZS should not be considered legal advice and expressed views are those of the authors alone. Readers should seek specific legal guidance before acting in any particular circumstance.

Contributing Editors
John J. Connolly

John J. Connolly
Partner
Email | +1 410.949.1149


Man

Andrew N. Goldfarb
Partner
Email | +1 202.778.1822


Sara Alpert Lawson_listing

Sara Alpert Lawson
Partner
Email | +1 410.949.1181


Nicholas DiCarlo

Nicholas M. DiCarlo
Associate
Email | +1 202.778.1835


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