Can my old employer, a bakery, prohibit me from ever selling cupcakes?
Question Details:
I used to work for a cupcake shop. I have since left and bake out of my house part time. I sell cupcakes occasionally and someone tipped off my ex-employer that I sold cupcakes. He then proceeded to call me and inform me that I signed a contract stating that I am not allowed to sell cupcakes again ever for any sort of profit. He refuses to let me see this copy of the contract. I state that the only paper I signed was a non-disclosure statement about recipes from the shop. He claims that I agreed never to make cupcakes again for profit. Is this possible?
Although a contract may contain a non-competitive provision, such a provision is limited in time, scope and geographic proximity. The provision your employer is alleging is overbroad if it prohibits you from selling cupcakes forever for profit and/or even alluding to the fact that you sell cupcakes.
A typical non-competitive provision for example, might prohibit you from selling cupcakes within the same town or within a certain distance of your former employer's cupcake shop for a few years.
If you file a lawsuit against your former employer to invalidate the non-competitive clause as overbroad, it is possible that a court might modify the provision by restricting its effective period of time, scope and geographic proximity. The court may also consider the relative bargaining strength of the parties to the contract which may to be your advantage as an employee versus employer. Since your former employer refuses to provide you with a copy of the contract, a potential lawsuit may prompt him to provide you with a copy of the contract. If the case proceeds to litigation, one phase of litigation is discovery during which your request for production of documents will demand that your former employer produce the contract.
