Business disputes in New York can emanate over contractual language and attempts to breach agreements. While in many employer-employee disagreements there is a reactive belief that the employer is always in the wrong, that is not always the case. In fact, employees will frequently violate a contract due to misbehavior, malfeasance or outright lying.
A woman who worked as a vice president at a modeling agency is being sued by her former company because she allegedly lied to commit a breach of contract. According to the filing, the former V.P. exaggerated her husband’s illness and stated that she was resigning to provide him with full-time care. In addition, she said she intended to sell her home and move to Canada to assist her husband with his illness. She said she would do consulting while there, but for that she needed to receive relief from her contract as it had a non-compete agreement. After it was given, she went to work for a competitor located not far from her former employer.
The company also asserts that she stole information from the company. Her contract was set to last until September 2020. In the contract, there was a non-competition agreement that would last for one year if she left the company before the contract expired. However, since she went to work for a direct competitor after allegedly lying about her real reason for quitting, the company decided to file suit.
Contracts and employment law will often intersect. When there are business disputes and they worsen to the degree that an employee is accused of breach of contract and other serious violations, it is imperative that the employer be fully protected. Commercial disputes are rarely easy, but they are one of the main avenues for companies to be fully shielded from apparent wrongdoing on the part of employees.
