Victory in business litigation is often won at preliminary injunction hearings, in which evidence is presented in a mini-bench trial. Carmen D. Caruso has tried numerous preliminary injunction hearings, typically involving franchise terminations and the enforcement, or objections to the enforcement, of post-termination restrictive covenants.

Some highlights include:

• Winning a state court injunction to protect the “book of business” of a terminated insurance agency from efforts by an insurance company, which the company itself had described as a “knife fight,” to transfer that business to a newly appointed agent.
• Defeating a requested injunction for alleged trademark infringement against a voluntarily terminated franchisee, where the franchisor had deliberately set a “trademark trap” by announcing the sudden end to post-expiration, at-will relationship, knowing that the franchisee could not possibly stop its usage of the trademarks in time to comply with the franchisor’s mandate.
• Successful defense of a high school ring distributor in a civil contempt proceeding for violation of a previous injunction not to compete. Caruso entered the case after the federal district judge had already held the client in contempt and persuaded the judge to give the client a new trial, which lasted four days, at which Caruso prevailed in vacating the contempt finding and the underlying injunction.
• Success in defending an international retail franchisor from claims of post-sale fraud in arranging the franchisee’s bank financing; and obtaining an injunction against post-termination competition and trademark infringement by the franchisee, who had alleged that the franchisor was guilty of selective enforcement of its non-compete clauses; by presenting evidence that the franchisor had sound business reasons for its actions in each situation.
• In a separate federal court case, successfully blocking a franchisor’s emergency request for injunctive relief where the evidence showed that this franchisor had largely withdrawn from opening single brand stores and was selective in enforcing its non-compete clauses.
• Defeated a request for a TRO against departing managerial employees in a nurse staffing agency who commenced competition while still employed by their former employer, where the employees allegedly downloaded all of the employer’s financial data that was revealed to their bank.

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