California Business Legal Questions

There may be a case for breach of contract, for failing to do the work properly, but you would probably only be able to recover the money you paid for them to clean the clothes, not the money you lost from losing customers.  It is not only very difficult to prove with any certainty that you lost customers, and how many customers and how much you would have made, because of the smell, but such damages are called "consequential damages", as opposed to direct damages, and are not normally recoverable in a breach of contract case except under particular circumstances. If I fail to repay a $1000 loan to you, the $1000 you lost are direct damages, i.e. damages that naturally flow from the breach.  If, because you didn't have the $1000, you couldn't buy a car and lost a job that would have  paid you $100,000 a year, those are considered consequential damages, i.e. damages which don't necessarily happen every time a loan isn't repaid but happened to occur in your situation.  These damagew are normally not recoverable unless they are within the contemplation of the parties at the time of contracting.  In other words, you may be able to recover them if you told me, at or before the time of the loan, that you would lose this job if I didn't repay you in time, but not otherwise.   In your case, where you lost customers because they didn't do the work right, it is a closer call, because that is more foreseeable and some courts may find it to have been within the contemplation of the parties at the time of contracting, but my bet would be that the damages would not be allowed.   Moreover, you have to think that if they ignored needed maintenance, they may be short on money and you wouldn't be able to collect. None of this is to say that you shouldn't consult an attorney in Ca. to look into your prospects, especially since it will probabl y coxst you little more to fule a suit seeking the return of they money you paid as it will to seek the additional damages, but my guess is that, given the problem  you will have proviing that the lost customers were due to the smell, the real question of whether these damages are recoerable, and the possibility that you won't be able to collect even if you win, you will probably decide not to pursue this claim if yoiu can get some money beck that you paid.... Read Answer

This is not a legal question.                                                                              ... Read Answer

Unless the business contacts and referral sources, or other information your former employee is using to compete, are trade secrets and/or other confidential proprietary information, she has every right to use them to compete with you.  Incidentally, except under circumstances which are not apparent from your question (i.e. your ex had sold the business to you), employee non-compete agreements are invalid under California law.... Read Answer

You can have employees or independent contractors who you can pay but not share profits with. You cannot engage in prohibited activities such as capping, referral fees, you know, you passed the bar including the professional ethics portion.  If in doubt, call you malpractice carrier. If you have no malpractice insurance, get some. You can also consider calling the Bar Attorney Hotline. ... Read Answer

You do not "forgeit" property your corporation owned/owns just because someone else now has the name. There are common law trademark issues, unfair competition issues, etc. about the name.  Think about your corporation not under its name but under the corporate number assigned by the Secretary of State. You should probably cntact the "new" corporaiton and see what you can work out and avoid litigation, which is very, very expensive. ... Read Answer

In 40 years I have only seen the corporate veil pierced once in properly formed and maintained LLC or corporation. There are tax benefits available in an entity whcih are not available to a sole proprietorship. Finally, I have no idea what liability could happy by sitting in a room playing games and puzzles. ... Read Answer