Legal Question in Business Law in California

Breach of Agreement

My former employer broke the terms of a signed contractual agreement between he and myself by withholding an additional $1500. from a direct hire placement I made as an Executive Recruiter. Per our signed contract we both agreed to a 50/50 split. His justification for keeping this additional amount was because he recommended the candidate for the position and the candidate was hired. He stated in an e-mail message to me that if he located a candidate and the candidate was hired, I would still receive the 50 percent fee. He has now sent me a counter claim letter stating that he is entitled to $2,000. and when can he expect me to pay him $500.

Will our signed contract and his e-mail message to me hold up in court? What should I do about the counter claim letter? How should that be handled?


Asked on 2/25/05, 12:09 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Breach of Agreement

This would be a small-claims matter, and small-claims judges are neither as sharp or as predictible as most superior court judges. My guess is that if the contract quite clearly gives YOU the 50% under all circumstances, or under this circumstance, you'll prevail. Otherwise, if there is some uncertainty as to what the contract provides, the small-claims judge will decide in favor of whichever of you did the more work and which of you seems to "deserve" the disputed sums based on otherwise-unrewarded skill, knowledge or effort.

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Answered on 2/26/05, 1:24 pm


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