Contract Law Case Study: The Fabulous Restaurant

Abstract
In this day and age, it’s increasingly rare for key employees to remain with one company for their entire careers. Non-competes, especially in the technology sector are becoming a necessity for businesses to survive. Nearly every provision of a non-compete will be analyzed for its reasonableness. The agreement’s terms must be carefully considered and drafter. The more general the terms, the more difficult the burden will be on the employer to prove that such terms are actually reasonable. Each of these elements should be carefully considered on a case by case basis. Care must be taken to ensure that the agreement will be enforceable.

The Fabulous Hotel hired me as head chef under a two-year employment contract,

If too great, the contract is void; and
• The location or distance involved. IF the contract prohibits you from working in the Western Hemisphere, that scope is too great, but the same county may be small enough to consider the agreement enforceable. On the other hand, if I was to agree never to be a chef on the entire East Cost for the rest of my life, a court would most likely find that agreement illegal because it is in force for too much time and over too great a distance. In contract law, a clear dividing line between reasonable and unreasonable terms does not exist, but is a matter of judicial discretion. In all cases such as this, a court, would no doubt study each case individually. (Seaquest (2012) page 147, 148 There are five elements of a contract that must exist, in order for the agreement between the Fabulous Hotel and myself to be enforceable. Although all contracts contain promises that are enforceable, not all promises meet contract standards. In other words, the promises must meet certain requirements before a contract can be deemed valid. In order for this to happen, the hotel contract must contain the following elements:
1).