Jury Verdict in Non-Compete Case

Earlier this year, Henson & Efron, P.A. attorneys David Bradley Olsen and Court J. Anderson returned to the Twin Cities from northern Minnesota with a jury verdict in hand.  H&E represented the buyer of a business that had stopped making payments toward the purchase price when it appeared that the sellers had set up a related party to compete for the same customers.  The sellers denied any wrongdoing, and sued for breach of contract to recover the full purchase price plus their attorneys' fees.  H&E countersued on behalf of the buyer for breach of the non-competition agreement, and for tortious interference with customer relations and prospective advantage. After hearing eight days of testimony and argument, the jury agreed that the sellers had engaged in unlawful competition, and awarded substantial damages to the buyer for lost revenue and profits.  On July 13, 2010, the Crow Wing County Court awarded the buyer an additional $515,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.  With that award, the net benefit to H&E's client was over $2 million.  In 2002 Olsen also represented another H&E client who was awarded over $450,000 in attorneys' fees and costs -- which at the time was the largest reported statutory fee award in Minnesota for an opposing party's bad faith litigation conduct.  

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