Articles Posted in Business Litigation

A prevalent issue in business litigation is whether a party can recover damages for fraud if the party also sues for breach of contract. “Under Florida law, ‘one can sue for breach of contract and fraudulent inducement to enter the very same contract, and obtain two recoveries.’” Guarantee Ins. Co. v. Brand Management Servs., Inc.,…

Respondeat superior is a common law doctrine which provides that an employer may be held liable for the actions of its employee if the employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment when committing the tortious or criminal act. Many businesses find themselves involved in litigation due to the actions of their…

Florida businesses often include “choice of law” provisions in their contracts to identify the substantive state law that will govern disputes that may later arise under the contract. These provisions provide the contracting parties with a greater degree of certainty as to how certain claims ultimately resolve in the future. Choice of law provisions are…

Business litigation involving claims under Florida’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA) for trade secret misappropriation often also include similar additional claims for tortious interference, fraud, or violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA). However, these additional claims rarely survive past the pleading stage because FUTSA prohibits parties from maintaining common law and…

A common issue in contractual disputes is whether the claims can be compelled to arbitration. Arbitration is an alternative method of dispute resolution that parties sometimes agree to through a pre-dispute contract. Many Florida businesses operating online websites often include arbitration provisions in their website’s terms and conditions. These arbitration provisions are enforceable if they…

The “first to breach” or “prior breach” doctrine is a commonly raised defense by employees in actions brought by their former employers to enforce restrictive covenants. Under Florida law, an employer’s prior breach of its employment contract may prohibit the employer from enforcing restrictive covenants under the same agreement. Employees typically raise the “prior breach”…

Non-compete agreements between employers and their employees sometimes contain “forum selection clauses” that dictate where subsequent lawsuits related to the non-compete agreement can be filed. Under Florida and federal law, forum-selection clauses are presumptively valid absent a “strong showing” that enforcement would be unfair or unreasonable under the circumstances. It is important for employers to…

Courts are often tasked with interpreting commercial contracts. Unfortunately, contracts sometimes contain terms that do not clearly convey the intent of the contracting parties. Courts consider these terms as “ambiguous” for purposes of contract interpretation in commercial litigation. Generally, an agreement is ambiguous under Florida law if, as a whole or by its terms and…

A frequently litigated issue in contractual disputes is whether a non-breaching party can recover its alleged consequential damages arising under a contract. Consequential damages, or special damages, may include monetary losses stemming from lost profits. If a party can establish a breach under the contract, then a party may be able to recover its consequential…

Tortious interference claims arise when another business or person unjustly interferes with the business or contractual relationships of another business. However, all interference is not inherently “tortious” under Florida law. For example, certain types of interference may qualify as “privileged” or “justified” when the party acts in its own financial interests and the interference does…