Our client, Peter LaFleur, (“LaFleur), has been sued for breach of contract. The lawsuit was filed by Perfect Diamond Baseball Academy (“PDBA”) on the ground that LaFleur violated a non-compete clause by opening a competing facility and soliciting current and former clients of PDBA. LaFleur is a resident of Tallahassee, Florida, and was a student-athlete at the University of Rhode Island. He received a B.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics and played third base for the baseball team. After LaFleur graduated, he was drafted by a “Double-A” Minor-League baseball team in Florida, which he played for from 1999 until 2005. After his playing career, LaFleur accepted a position with the Florida Gators as a hitting coach. LaFleur enjoyed success as a …show more content…
PDBA is a baseball training facility located in Miami Springs, Florida, primarily servicing Division 1 and Division 2 college baseball players who reside in Florida. LaFleur was called in for an interview, and Wilde offered him a position as a hitting and infield coach at PDBA. Wilde was impressed with LaFleur’s prior accomplishments and was interested in the relationships that he had with collegiate baseball players. Wilde told LaFleur that although recruitment was not a requisite for employment at the facility, PDBA provided trainers with a commission of twenty percent of all profits obtained from services provided to a player referred by a trainer. On March 17, 2012, LaFleur signed a non-compete clause included in his employment contract with …show more content…
However, this endeavor did not produce the results PDBA had been looking for, and they suffered a major decrease in profits for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. As a result, PDBA was forced to downsize by laying off some of its employees. Since LaFleur was PDBA’s newest hire, he was let go on May 15, 2014. On June 20, 2015, Gerald Johanson (“Johanson”), a client of PDBA, and a friend of LaFleur, informed PDBA that LaFleur had opened Grand Slam Training Facility (“Grand Slam”) in Bainbridge, Georgia. LaFleur thought that this would be a good idea, because he hoped to attract clients from Georgia and Florida. He also emailed Johanson an advertisement flyer and told him to distribute the flyers to his teammates and friends. Many of LaFleur’s former clients contacted him, insisting that he continue to train them at his new facility. LaFleur declined all of his former clients except Johanson, but it is unclear as to whether or not LaFleur is training Phillips at Grand Slam as well. Essentially, LaFleur’s new facility is about a seven- hour drive away from PDBA’s facility in Miami